


Of Mothers and Children

by storm_8



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Children, F/F, Motherhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-12 11:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 24,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18010109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_8/pseuds/storm_8
Summary: Some shenanigans of the every day life of Sara Sidle and Sofia Curtis, and their four children.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first series I ever wrote when I first started writing fan fiction many years ago. I'm a scientist at heart, so CSI was one of my favorite series. Sofia and Sara were and still are one of my favorite pairings, and at the time I thought 'why not see what would happen if they were married and had four children'? The result was this series, with a number of fics that I will be posting here.
> 
> These were written a while ago and posted on LiveJournal; I have done some editing but they will be posted mostly as they were at the time. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> This is not beta-ed, so all mistakes are mine.

Alexandra Curtis was pretty sure her mother was not happy, as the detective sat next to her in the principal’s office. From the moment the principal had informed her that he had called her mother to discuss the “situation”, she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or concerned that it was her blonde mother who had been called. After all, her mother carried a gun and could be quite scary, but she also didn’t particularly like the principal in front of whom they were now sitting.

“Ms. Curtis, as I’m sure you can recall, this is the fifth time this month that your daughter has been brought to my presence in the consequence of a fight.” The man started diplomatically. “Although I didn’t think it was necessary to call you the first time, this has now become a problem.” He leaned forward in his chair and rested his arms on his desk. “It is my job to ensure the welfare of everyone in the school, and this being the fifth time this happens, I believe some actions have to be taken in order for this not to repeat itself.”

“Principal James, as I’m sure you’re aware, I work for the Las Vegas Police Department and therefore I have very little time to spare, considering I had to leave a crime scene to be here. If you would please explain yourself and tell me what exactly happened, I would greatly appreciate it.” Sofia said rather sternly.

The man in question glared at the detective rather aggressively. The woman didn’t even flinch, used to those kinds of looks as she was from having to deal with far more intimidating men in her line of work.

Men who normally committed murders.

He glared some more and then opened a file that was on his desk. “Very well. Alexandra initiated an altercation with one of her classmates in the cafeteria. Mr. Jones had to be sent to the hospital to receive some stitches on his forehead because he hit his head against one of the tables.”

Only with years of practice did Sofia manage to hide the smirk she knew was coming. She did raise an eyebrow and turned to look at her 14-year-old daughter. “Do you have anything to say to this Alex?” she asked before the principal could continue.

The girl turned to her mother. Brown eyes, which always reminded the detective of Sara’s eyes, locked onto blue. “Uh… He deserved it?” she answered nervously. She had managed to beat a guy twice her size and even send him to the hospital, but at that moment her mom looked rather intimidating. The fact that the detective was wearing her gun and badge didn’t help either.

“Alexandra! Haven’t your mother and I taught you nothing?” the blonde admonished, although she was rather amused and tried very hard not to show it for the sake of appearances.

“But mom, he is a big pompous jerk who was picking on some guy and…” the young girl hurried to explain but was cut off.

“Alex. That is no reason to start a fight, in the cafeteria of all places.”

“But I didn’t start the fight. He was the one who…”

“Enough!” the principal interrupted, reminding Sofia that she had to deal with the man. “Ms. Curtis, it is clear to me that your daughter has no respect for the rules of this school. And might I remind you that the other student was sent to the _hospital_. To receive _stitches_. I’m afraid that I will have to take your daughter off the basketball team.”

“WHAT??!! You can’t do that!!” Alexandra exclaimed.

“I beg your pardon? What does my daughter’s place in the team have to do with this?” Sofia asked more civilly.

“It’s punishment.” The man explained “If these…” he waved his hand looking for the right word “…incidents don’t repeat themselves she may return to the team next term.”

“Oh, that is bullshit!” the girl shot up from her seat and slammed her fist on the desk “You can’t…”

“Ms. Curtis, watch your language or I will have you suspended!” The man got up also and stared down at the girl who kept glaring daggers at him, clearly not intimidated in the least.

“Alex, sit down and let me handle this.” Her mother said calmly, looking at her daughter, hoping she would obey. The girl _was_ Sara’s daughter and _had_ inherited the brunette’s stubborn streak and she knew it was rather useless to tell Alex to calm down.

“Mom! You can’t let…”

“Alexandra Sidle Curtis! Do as you’re told and sit down!” Sofia’s harsh tone shut the girl up, but it didn’t do anything to diminish the glare, which was now directed her way.

Still glaring at her mother, but not wanting to anger her further, Alex sat down and watched quietly.

The principal sat down as well and as he opened his mouth to start speaking again, he was cut off.

“Now, Mr. James. I agree that my daughter should be punished for her behavior, but I believe that what you are suggesting is a little harsh.”

“Ms. Curtis…” The woman raised her hand and stopped him.

“It is harsh because my daughter was simply defending one of the other students from being harassed by this Mr. Jones. Also, it has come to my attention that Mr. Jones is always the first one to throw punches, after attacking my daughter and other students verbally. As it stands, I must question why only my daughter is brought to your office and my wife or I are called, while Mr. Jones is sent to the infirmary to mend his broken ego because he was put in his place by a girl.”

Alex gaped at her mother, eyes wide. She knew her mom didn’t like the principal, but she was normally very civilized. Even Mr. James seemed taken aback.

*****

“Oh my God! You did not say that to the man!” Sara looked shocked, while trying to contain her laughter.

The two women were discussing the incident from that morning. After the meeting at the principal’s office, Sofia had gone back to work and had then called Sara to let her know what had happened. Now that the brunette had finally gotten home and cooked them a light dinner, they sat at the table while Sofia explained it in greater detail.

“Oh yes I did.” The blonde replied, while trying to get 4-year-old James Junior to eat his carrots. “I am not letting him walk all over my daughter because he thinks he holds some power over me by being friends with Undersheriff McKeen.” Sofia looked up to the other end of the table where Sara was sitting “Besides, he is a big pompous jerk, just like the Jones kid.” she said, smirking. Sara lost it and laughed.

Just then, the front door opened and in came the rest of their family. Or rather, Tommy, followed closely by his younger sister Jill, ran in nearly running over Alex who had opened the door.

“Jill! Tommy! Stop it!” the older of their children yelled, closing the door behind herself. The two younger kids just turned around and blew a raspberry at their older sister. Giggling, they high-fived each other and then ran over to their brunette mom, who stood up.

“Hi mommy!” They said simultaneously and tackle-hugged Sara, who nearly toppled over from the impact. The children kept giggling, “Alex is being bossy again.” Tommy said, smiling wide.

“Hey!” Alex glared at her 10-year-old brother “If I catch you, you brat, I’ll…” She advanced towards them, intent on smacking her brother over the head.

“You’ll what?” Sara asked, stopping the girl in her tracks “We need to have a serious conversation, young lady!” She put 6-year-old Jill on the floor. The girl and her brother ran off to Sofia’s side and from the safety of their blonde mother’s side observed the scene. “Mommy! Mommy!” Jill pulled on her mother’s shirt to get her attention.

Sofia had finally managed to convince JJ to eat his carrots, which he was doing like one did with popcorn at the cinema – stuffing them in his mouth and chewing, while watching the scene unfolding. He seemed to be rather interested in what was going on with Sara and Alex and didn’t particularly care about what he was eating.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Jill kept tugging on the detective’s shirt and was hoisted up onto her mother’s lap. Sofia gave her blue-eyed daughter her full attention “Yes, Jilly-bean?”

“Is mommy angry with big sis?”

“No, your mommy isn’t angry. But we need to talk to your sister about something important. So why don’t you and your brother go watch some TV?” Sofia smiled gently at her daughter and then to her older son. “There’s nothing to worry about, alright?”

The boy nodded and held out his hand to his sister, but the girl would have none of it.

“But mommy looks angry.” She pointed to Sara, who was listening to Alex’s version of the incident at the school that morning.

“Don’t worry Jilly-bean. Mommy is just trying to get all the evidence together to understand what happened with your sister today at school. You remember what I’ve told you about your mom and evidence?”

The blonde girl scrunched up her nose in thought. “That mommy gets very serious, because puzzles are hard?” the girl supplied after a few seconds of thinking.

Sofia smiled at her daughter and set her down on the floor. “Exactly. Now, go on. You can watch some TV before going to bed tonight.”

“Okay. Promise mommy is not mad at big sis?” the girl asked looking back to her brunette mom and sister.

“Yes, I promise.” Sofia leaned down and held out her pinky, which the girl took with her own, sealing the talk with a pinky promise. Tommy just rolled his eyes at his sister’s behaviour and tugged her towards the couches. He wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to watch some TV before bedtime; that was certain.


	2. Chapter 2

The shrieking of the alarm clock that morning jolted Sofia out of her peaceful sleep. Groaning and cursing and groaning some more she reached out blindly trying to stop the aggravating piece of machinery. An action thwarted by the fact that she was lying in the middle of the bed and facing the other way.

When she realized she could barely reach the edge of the bedside table, she growled and opened one eye. Hair sticking every which way, she turned her head around and tried to make out the exact location of the alarm clock through the fog of sleep still around her brain.

When her opened eye focused on the glowing numbers showing the time, she scowled and knocked the offending thing off the table. The silence following the final pitiful shriek was golden.

The blonde woman sighed happily and laid her head back down. As Fate would have it, the moment her head hit the pillow, the door banged open and in walked a very cheerful-looking Sara Sidle.

Noting the defeated alarm clock on the floor and the glare she was receiving from her wife, Sara smiled wide and moved towards the bed.

“No. Absolutely not.” Sofia said before the brunette could utter a single word “Whatever it is, I am not getting out of bed. I had three hours of sleep, four at most, after having the Undersheriff hounding me at every possible opportunity the past three days for me to get the case closed. And then he took all the credit for it! So, no!” With that, she turned the other way and laid her head back down.

Sara blinked a few times after that tirade. “You’re incredibly talkative for having slept only four hours.” When she got no answer, she decided to change tactics. “Sofia, we promised the kids we’d take them to a picnic today, remember?” She laid down next to the blonde and caressed her back. She was fully aware of what she had been through the last three days, but she also believed time spent with their children was the exact thing her wife needed.

The detective turned around and looked up at Sara “When did we make such a promise?” The brunette just looked back with a knowing smile. Sofia just rolled her eyes. “I hate you.” she muttered.

Sara’s smile softened and she raised her hand and stroked Sofia’s cheek. “I know babe, I love you too.” She leaned in, laying the softest kiss upon the blonde’s lips. Sofia sighed and closed her eyes. She reached up and dragged Sara on top of her. She deepened the kiss, running her tongue along the brunette’s bottom lip.

Just then, stampeding was heard from the hall and JJ ran into the room, followed closely behind by a raging Jill and their sister Alex, who was trying to get a hold of the other two.

“Jill! Leave your brother alone!” she managed to grab Jill around the waist and hoisted her up, while the girl tried to break free “Let go! Let go! I want my cookie back!”

Seeing the opportunity, JJ ran past them and out of the room laughing hysterically at his blonde sister.

Still struggling with Jill, Alex finally noticed the position their mothers were in: Sara on top of Sofia and hands resting in interesting places. “Oh my God! I did not need to see that!” she exclaimed putting one of her hands in front of Jill’s eyes. “I don’t need these kinds of visuals.”

Sofia raised an eyebrow at that and smirking evilly rolled them over, kissing Sara again before the brunette could assimilate what had happened.

“Mom! Seriously!!” Alex turned around and marched out, closing the door loudly behind her.


	3. School Mornings at the Sidle Curtis household

Mornings before school at the Sidle and Curtis household were not something every family could handle. There was a lazy teenager that did not want to get up, and there were children under the ages of 7 that were up before their parents were and tried to wake their older siblings; there was a 10 year old boy who almost every morning fell off the bed in an attempt to shoo his younger brother off and there were the parents, who were both women – one working at the LVPD and the other at the Las Vegas Crime Lab.

One of their neighbours was a very unpleasant 40-year-old lady, who thought the children should be sent to boarding school and the two women should be in hell, for sleeping together. Every morning she would look out her window and scowl at the little devils and cross herself and pray a few Hail Mary’s when she saw the two women kiss goodbye.

****** 

“James! Get back here and put your shirt on!” Sara ran all over the living room after her 4-year-old son, who had decided that this morning was as good as any other time to refuse to do as he was told.

Blinking owlishly, Tommy stared from the breakfast counter that separated the living room from the kitchen, while next to him Jill scowled at the glass of milk in front of her.

Sofia stood by the oven flipping eggs in the pan, buttering pieces of toast and filling cereal bowls, wondering for the hundredth time how Alex could sleep through all the ruckus.

Finally dressed and still laughing madly, JJ was set down at the counter. Sara huffed and looked at clock. Frowning, she bellowed “Alexandra!! Get out of bed right now or I swear you’ll be doing the dishes for a whole month!!” Hearing no answer or any sign of movement from the room, the brunette sighed loudly.

“I’ll go this time.” Sofia offered, setting a plate of eggs and toast and a cup of coffee in front of her wife. “Tommy, eat your cereal, and Jill…” the girl in question looked up “…drink your milk.”

“But mommy…” the girl pouted “I don’t wanna.”

“Jillian…” Sofia said warningly. The girl huffed at her mother’s tone and went back to her bowl of chopped fruit, scowling at the offending glass of milk.

Reaching her daughter’s room, the blonde knocked and walked in. She had to roll her eyes at the scene – the room looked like a hurricane had been through: walls covered in posters, school books and papers on the floor, socks in one corner, shirts in the other… And then there was Alex, clad in sports bra and shorts, spread out on the bed, dead to the world, the comforter tangled around her.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sofia ran her hand through the girl’s unruly, short hair. “Alex, you have to get up or you’ll be late. I’m sure you don’t want principal James giving you another lecture on tardiness.”

The brunette just groaned and rolled onto her back, muttering for 5 more minutes.

“Alexandra!” Sofia said sternly but smiling “Your mother said you would be doing the dishes for the next month and I’m inclined to throw in some more chores, like…” she hummed, finger on her chin. Alex peered at her mother through one eye. “Helping the lovely Mrs. Jenkins with her garbage.”

“Mom!! You can’t be serious!!” The girl shot up, arms flailing wildly. “The woman thinks you and mom should burn in hell because you’re gay and you want me to take out her trash??”

Sofia laughed at the look of horror on her daughter’s face. “Maybe it is a good idea.” came out in between laughs.

Alex grabbed her pillow and tried to hit her mom with it, but the detective was faster and quickly left the room, followed by a flying pillow.

Sara raised an eyebrow when she saw what seemed to be Alex’s pillow hit the wall across from the girl’s bedroom. Sofia gave her a thumbs up.

Ten minutes later a fully showered and dressed teenager came into the kitchen, muttering about crazy mothers and how Mrs. Jenkins was possessed by an evil spirit.

“Morning, Alex. Sleep well?” Sofia asked, smirking widely. The kids started giggling and Alex scowled.

“Mom, don’t. Just don’t!” She filled a cereal bowl and ate in typical teenage fashion. The giggling only increased.

Sara gathered the dishes and put them in the sink and as she walked by, patted her eldest daughter on the head. “There, there.” She only received a glare. “Now, brush your teeth and grab your bags children. We don’t want to be late to school.”

A chorus of ‘yes, mom’ followed, as the kids disappeared down the hall, James Junior dashing away from his pursuing blonde mother.

“We should put JJ in a track team, when he starts school.” Alex stated as she finished her breakfast. Her mother nodded in agreement.

“I’ll come pick you up after practice today, kiddo. We can go and get you those new trainers you’ve been nagging me about.” The last statement earned her a gap-toothed smile and a crushing hug.

“Thanks, mom. You’re the best!”

Fifteen minutes later, with all the children ready, they headed out. JJ and Jill were put in Sara’s car and Tommy and Alex got into Sofia’s.

Noting that Mrs. Jenkins was, as usual, spying on them through the window, the detective winked at her and grabbed Sara for a smouldering kiss.

“Oh God.” muttered Alex. “Don’t look.” She told her brother and put her hand over his eyes.


	4. Sunday Morning

Like any other Sunday morning, Sofia slowly woke up to the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen. Smiling fondly at the sounds she could hear – Jill’s giggling, Sara admonishing Tommy that he shouldn’t lick the melted chocolate from the bowl – she decided she would indulge in a few more minutes of peaceful dozing. Releasing a contented sigh, she burrowed deeper into the pillows and closed her eyes… only to have them fly open the next second, her hand clutching her chest in alarm.

******

In the kitchen, Sara flinched when metal hit the floor rather loudly. They had certainly woken up Sofia with that bang.

Turning around, she looked sternly at her 10-year-old son. “Thomas Sidle!! I told you not to touch that bowl!”

“What in the world just happened?” Sofia asked, as she emerged from the bedroom, hand still over her racing heart “You scared the living daylights out of me!”

Tommy looked between his two moms. He put on his best innocent smile and declared: “We were making breakfast for you mom!” he pointed towards the detective “But then Jill wanted to have some chocolate and because she couldn’t reach the bowl, I got it for her. It just fell down.”

“Hey!!” Jill yelled, “It was you Tommy, not me!” she grabbed the wooden spatula off the floor and whacked her brother on the head with it. The boy scampered away, trying desperately to avoid getting hit by his sister.

Sofia blinked as the two children ran past her. Sara just shook her head and sighed. “Sorry, Sofia. We didn’t mean to wake you.”

Sofia smiled and shook her head. “It’s alright. I was already awake; just gave me a scare.” She picked the bowl off the floor and dumped it in the sink “Where are Alex and JJ?”

Sara put the last pancake on a plate and set it on the table. Cleaning her hands on a dishrag she answered: “Alex went to the grocery store to get more milk and orange juice, and JJ wanted to tag along.”

Sofia nodded and looked out the kitchen window. Mrs. Jenkins was sitting on her front porch, glaring at the kids playing across the street. Smirking evilly, she turned to Sara. “Babe, have you, by any chance, picked up the newspaper this morning?”

The brunette looked a bit confused at her wife “Uh, no…”

“Would you fetch it for me then?” Sara frowned at the request. Her blonde beauty was plotting in that pretty head of hers. “Please?” Sofia added, smiling innocently.

Still frowning, she left the kitchen toward the front door. Opening it, she stepped outside and looked around for the newspaper. When she saw it in a bush on their front lawn, she rolled her eyes. “That newspaper boy has no aim at all. Hell, Alex could teach him a thing or two…” Still muttering to herself, she went to extricate the paper from the bush.

As soon as she turned around to head back into the house, she saw Sofia walking towards her with a mischievous grin on her face. Opening her mouth to ask a question, she was stopped by Sofia waving and smiling at their neighbour and then shouting, “Good morning, Mrs. Jenkins!”

Before she could process the odd situation further, she was swept into the blonde’s arms and kissed like there was no tomorrow. Dropping the newspaper back into the bush, Sara wrapped her arms around the other woman’s neck and kissed back just as fiercely.

Mrs. Jenkins about had a heart attack. Her eyes bulged out, she waved her hands towards the sky, crossed herself half a dozen times and prayed for the salvation of her neighbours’ souls.

******

Alex and JJ left the grocery store, waving at the smiling Mrs. Walters who worked at the cash register. Stopping at a red light, JJ decided he didn’t want to walk all the way back home. He looked up at his sister and pulled on her jeans. “Alex! I want up!”

Looking down at her smiling brother, Alex sighed. “Don’t you think you’re a bit too big for being carried around?”

Not to be deterred, James Junior gave his big sister a grin and stretched his arms up “Please, Alex! I like it when it’s you. You’re tall!”

Chuckling at his antics, Alex crouched down. “Shoulders?”

“Yay!” the boy nodded vigorously and gave the young brunette a loud kiss on the cheek. Laughing, Alex hoisted JJ onto her shoulders and rose. Grabbing the groceries off the floor with one arm and holding her little brother’s leg with the other, she crossed the street and proceeded home.

The sight that greeted them as they approached their house was an odd one; their mothers were, for lack of a better word, making out in front of the house, for everyone to see. Mrs. Jenkins had given up all pretence at civility and yelled loud and clear that they would suffer in hell for a thousand years, while Mr. Carter from across the street laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. Miss Daniels had stopped in her morning jog to see what was going on and Michael, who lived down the street, nearly fell off his bike.

“And I wonder why people at school think I’m crazy…” Alex said to no one in particular.


	5. Weekend at Lake Mead

Being the Dayshift Supervisor did have its perks. It had downsides, like having to put up with Ecklie on an almost daily basis, but the perks did more than make up for any complaints the man liked to rain down on her. Also, when Jim had retired, Sofia was appointed as the new Homicide Captain. Even though she had to deal with Undersheriff McKeen more directly than before, the post had its perks too.

Sara and Sofia were currently enjoying one of the perks that came with their jobs: an entire weekend off from work, which they were spending with their children at Lake Mead.

They had found a somewhat secluded spot on the sandy beach and Sofia, armed with camera, took pictures of the kids frolicking around in the water. She laughed when Jill managed to dunk her brother Tommy in the water and gave a victory sign.

Sara and Alex were trying to teach little JJ to swim. _Trying_ being the key word. They argued back and forth, while JJ, knee deep in the water, looked on very amused.

“Seriously, mom! Let me do the teaching, because I still remember _very_ clearly the times you tried to teach me to swim.”

“That was one time! And it was actually Greg’s fault. He just threw you in and hoped whatever instincts you had would kick in.” Sara shot back.

“Oh really?” Alex raised an eyebrow and smirked evilly “You mean like this?”

Sofia raised her camera just in time to capture the moment Sara hit the water with a huge splash. At the sound of JJ’s laughter, the other two siblings looked over to see their brunette mother sputtering water. Glaring, she launched herself at her daughter sending them both splashing into the water and giving Sofia lots of hilarious pictures.

******

“Mom, JJ is eating sand again.” Tommy said, slurping loudly from his straw. Alex rolled her eyes at him and smacked him on the head, while Sara attempted to grab the sand covered cookie from her son. Sofia snapped a picture.

“Jillian Sidle! You’re supposed to eat your food, not wear it!” the detective admonished the blonde girl when she noticed the state her bathing suit was in. Jill just gave a toothy grin and snatched another handful of pretzels from the bag. The blonde woman could only chuckle and take another picture.

“Hey, look!” Tommy said suddenly “Isn’t that Mr. Carter?” Everyone turned in the direction he was pointing to. Mr. Carter was indeed walking along the shore, clad in a red pair of shorts. When he noticed them, he waved and walked over to them.

“Hi, kids! Ladies. What a lovely surprise.”

“Andrew.” Sofia greeted and Sara nodded at him, still struggling with JJ and his sand covered food. “What brigs you to Lake Mead? I thought you were working this weekend.”

The man plopped down next to Tommy and ruffled is hair. “Oh, my boss changed his mind at the last minute.” He then leaned in and said conspiratorially, eyes fixed on Sofia “I came here to run away from Mrs. Jenkins. Since you left last Friday, the woman has no one around to keep her on her toes and she kept bugging me with apocalyptical catastrophes and doomsday prophecies.”

“She didn’t say anything about us?” the blonde woman questioned, grinning widely.

“She did. Something about sins against the grace of God and children possessed by evil spirits. Mrs. Spencer, from next door, escorted her back to her house and promised to bake some biscuits if Mrs. Jenkins stopped speaking nonsense.”

Alex and Sofia started laughing so hard, that even JJ got distracted and Sara succeeded in getting the ruined food away from him. When the boy tried biting into the cookie supposedly in his hand, he frowned, realizing it wasn’t there anymore. “Mommy! I want cookie!” he wailed, a cute pout on his face.

“I’ll give you the cookies if you promise not to bury them in the sand.” Sara returned sternly.

She received a big grin and a “Yes, Mommy.”

Still very suspicious about his intentions, Sara gave JJ a few cookies and watched amused as he proceeded to stuff two in his mouth and offer another to Andrew.

“Thank you, young man. That’s very kind of you.” He replied with a grin, accepting the cookie.

“Mrs. Jenkins is very creepy.” Tommy said, slurping through his straw again.

“I think it’s because she has too many cats.” Jill stated. Everyone blinked.

“Ehh, what?” her older brother asked, rubbing his forehead.

“What makes you say that, Jilly-bean?” Sofia asked.

“Well, in some TV shows they say that if a woman doesn’t marry, she gets a lot of cats, and because she has lots of cats, she only loves the cats and becomes creepy, especially with children.” The young girl stated, very proud of herself.

Mr. Carter started laughing again, Sara and Sofia joining in. Tommy continued to rub his forehead, trying to understand his sister’s logic, if there was any to be found. Alex sighed, thinking she was the only sane person in this family. James Junior, big brown eyes staring in awe, offered Jill another cookie, because she was very smart.

******

Because it was Sunday, and the children had school the next day, they had to return to the camping site and start packing tents and whatever remained of the food. Mr. Carter, ever the gentleman, offered to help and the women gladly accepted. However, Sara had to shake her head at her wife, when she overheard the detective and their neighbour plotting against Mrs. Jenkins.

As the younger children were prone to cause more damage than help packing, they were sent off to wash the dishes. If asked, Alex would tell you that this had been a very bad idea.

While rummaging around in one of the tents for a pair of jeans, she never noticed her siblings, lead by Tommy, approach. She did notice when they dumped three glasses of ice-cold water on her back.

Laughing madly, the three children ran away in different directions, while Alex yelled and screamed and chased after them.


	6. Chapter 6

Every night, between 9.30 and 10 p.m. the children would be sent off to bed. Sofia would brush Jill’s long blonde hair in a, sometimes, futile attempt at preventing it from tangling and then read her a story of princesses and their charming knights. Sara made sure Tommy had done his homework, while JJ sat on his bed clutching a teddy bear about as big as him. JJ also insisted on a bedtime story, read or made up by his mom. Tommy would always complain and proclaim he was too grown up for stories, but mid-way he would be paying more attention to it than his little brother.

With the kids tucked in, Sara would then collapse on the couch and catch up on the news or the latest scientific journals. Sofia checked on their eldest daughter, who would normally be finishing her homework.

Knocking on the door, she walked in to be greeted by the usual mess of Alex’s room.

“Alex, honestly, how can you find anything in this chaos?” she picked up a few socks, t-shirts and jeans and put them in the laundry basket.

The teenager looked up from the book she was reading. “Mom, this is organized chaos. I know exactly where everything is. Besides, some of my friends’ rooms look much worse.”

Looking sceptically at her daughter, Sofia grabbed a sports magazine off the floor and waved it around “I don’t know. Jack seems to be pretty organized and I know Erik’s mother – she would never allow this kind of disarray. As for the other guys…” the detective grinned “… you may have a point. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re as messy as any boy. And here I thought you were a girl…”

“Mom!! I AM a girl!!” Alex exclaimed sitting up on the bed “It’s not my fault I like doing things most girls don’t. Besides, the only thing they do is moon over boys like Jones.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t moon over Jones?” Sofia chuckled at Alex’s horrified look. “I’m just kidding. Of course you don’t… _Maybe over his girlfriend_ …” Alex wasn’t sure whether she had understood her mother about that last part. It had come out rather mumbled, but before she could ask about it, the blonde woman changed the subject “Anyway, is your homework done? Do you want your mom to take a look at it?”

The young brunette frowned at her grinning mom “No, it’s okay. It was easy and it’s all done.”

“Alright, then. Don’t stay up too late. Goodnight!” Sofia waved and left the room, still grinning suspiciously. Alex frowned even more and followed her mother out of the room with her eyes. This ended up being a mistake, because she stretched too far and fell off the bed with a loud yelp and a few choice words.

******

Grabbing the glass of scotch held out for her, Sofia plopped down next to Sara on the couch. Peering over at the magazine her wife was reading, Sofia chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Sara asked, gazing over. An article on forensic facial reconstruction was hardly considered chuckle-worthy.

“Oh, I was just thinking we could use that to maybe try and understand why Mrs. Jenkins is so grumpy all the time. Maybe she wasn’t all that good looking when she was younger…”

“Sofia!! Honestly!!” the brunette whipped her smirking partner on the arm with her journal “Why do you insist on antagonizing the woman? You only make it worse!”

“Oh, hush. She was already unpleasant before we moved here. Andrew said she used to…”

“Aren’t you and Andrew really cosy these days?” Sara mocked “Always antagonizing Mrs. Jenkins…” she shook her head and went back to her article.

The blonde’s retort died on her lips, when she noted Sara’s expression. Setting her glass down, she turned to her wife, left leg tucked under her body.

“Hey,” reaching out a hand, she turned the brunette to face her. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

Smiling thinly, Sara locked eyes with the blonde. “No… Not entirely…”

“Did something happen today at work?”

“I’m sure someone from my team told you about the case we closed today…” Sara gave a knowing grin. Sofia smiled sheepishly. She knew Sara was a very independent woman, but she couldn’t help but keep an eye on her, whether it was through the Dayshift CSIs or the detectives her wife worked with. Surprisingly, when she had found out, the brunette had been more amused at the stuttering and apologetic detective than anything else.

Sofia had indeed kept tabs on this particular case. A woman had been murdered by her partner, because of an affair with the handsome next-door neighbour. What was worse was the involvement of the women’s children, which only served to add to the gruesome picture.

Pushing an errant strand of hair behind her wife’s ear, the blonde tried to reassure her “You know I would never, could never cheat on you. My mother would hunt me down and I don’t want to think about what Jim would do, with all those fatherly instincts he has towards you, not to mention our children…”

Sara sighed and turned away “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Sof. I do. I really do. It’s just…” The faraway look on her face spurred the other woman into action. Grasping the brunette’s face with both hands, Sofia leaned in and kissed her.

Soft and gentle, nipping at her upper lip and then on the bottom one, Sofia felt Sara slowly giving into the kiss. One hand descended to the CSI’s neck and the kiss was deepened.

They ended up lying down on the couch, the detective on her back and Sara tangled around her, never separating, never breaking their kiss.

Alex carefully shut the door to her room. She leaned back against it and sighed, a smile gracing her features. For all the complaining about visuals she didn’t need, she wished she would one day be as happy as her mothers were with each other…


	7. Basketball practice

The practices of the girls’ basketball team on late Friday afternoons were always well attended. Because most of the kids in school were too young to go out to party, but didn’t want to head home just yet, they hung around the gym and watched the girls practice their drills, passes and throws.

Some kids went to watch their friends and shout out some encouragement every now and then; some boys simply watched the girls, drooling most of the time; most girls would go to make sure their boyfriends weren’t eyeing the team members, while others daydreamed about the players on court and sighed dreamily whenever their favourite girl would look their way. Jack, Erik and David liked to tease their best friend and team captain, Alex, especially when she missed the net – the girl would take it all in good spirits and shout back that they couldn’t have done it better.

******

“Hey, Alex.” Ashley nudged the brunette with her elbow “That girl over there…” she pointed towards the stands to a group of girls “… is drooling over you again.” She grinned wickedly.

Alex turned around and when her gaze landed on the girls, they all went quiet and one of them blushed furiously.

Alex sighed and focused back on the happenings on the court. “Ash, cut it off. For all I know they could be drooling over the guys on the other side.” She waved to the other stands, where a group of jocks sat.

Ashley just rolled her eyes at her friend. The girl could be so stubborn. Everyone on the team knew that their captain attracted the most girls to their practices and even games, but their attention just flew right over Alex’s head. Even the guys had noticed and that was why Jones continually picked fights with the brunette – Ashley suspected his girlfriend had somewhat of a crush on her tomboy friend and Jones didn’t like it one bit.

******

“Hey, guys. What did I miss?” Jennifer Mitchell greeted her friends and sat down next to Erik.

“Hey, Jen.” Jack and David waved at her and Erik gave her a grin. “You haven’t missed much. But Angelica is gawking at Alex again.”

Jen looked at the group of girls that Ashley had pointed out to Alex earlier. She frowned, when she noticed the silly grin on Angelica’s face. That girl had better take her eyes off her friend, or else.

Just then, on the court, Alex leapt up and successfully scored another two points. Amidst the applause and cheering from her friends, the brunette noticed Jen sitting with the guys and waved. Jennifer waved back and smiled. This earned her a glare from Angelica and her group of friends, but she never noticed. The guys did, though, and they smirked. “Those two are _soooo_ clueless…” Jack muttered to his friends and they all nodded back in agreement.

******

JJ held onto his auntie Cat’s hand as they walked down the corridor of Alex’s school. He smiled, like only he could, at the prospect of seeing his big sister playing basketball. She was tall and always made the ball hit the target; in his book, she was his hero.

Catherine smiled fondly at the boy. He had been restless ever since she had picked him up and told him they were gonna go see Alex at practice. She had long ago noticed that little James had a bit of hero worship towards the girl, more so than his other siblings.

Reaching the gym, she noted it was rather full of students for a Friday afternoon. The players on court were being split into teams. Catherine supposed they had arrived just in time to watch Alex play some basketball. Or at least JJ had; she had to get to work.

******

As they prepared to start the game, Alex noticed her aunt and JJ at the gym’s entrance. “Hey, coach? Could you give me two minutes? My aunt is here with my brother.” She pointed towards them, as the coach looked her way. He nodded his assent.

Jogging over, the tomboy gave her grinning brother a smile and ruffled his hair. “Hey, JJ. What are you doing here?”

“Watching you play, of course!” Catherine chuckled at his enthusiastic answer.

“Sara asked me to pick him up and bring him here. She got caught up at work and couldn’t make it, but she’ll be here, after you finish, to take you two home.” The woman explained, “Oh, and Sofia mentioned you could have your friends over for dinner, because Tommy and Jill would be at their friends’… She said something about ordering pizza…”

The young girl nodded. “Are you gonna stay and watch?”

“I’d love to, Alex, but I have to get to work. I am coming to watch you play next week, though.” Catherine promised. Looking over to JJ, she smiled “You, be a good boy, alright? Make sure your sister scores a lot of points!”

He nodded vigorously and gave his auntie a big hug goodbye. Alex then picked him up and strode over to her friends on the stands.

JJ waved at Ashley as they walked by and she waved back, grinning “Hey, JJ!” She then noticed that the whispering among the students had increased as they watched the cute little boy – they ooohed and aaahhed at the scene. She shook her head in dismay, when Angelica about fainted, when the two siblings walked by – that girl had the biggest crush on her friend…

“Ooh, you look pretty!” was the first thing out of JJ’s mouth when Jen came to get him. She laughed and the boys chuckled at the slight blush on the team captain’s face.

“Thank you, JJ.” She grinned and winked at Alex “Now, come on. Let your sister get back to her practice, so we can watch her score some points.” He smiled wide and took Jen’s hand.

Alex could only return to her game, the faint blush, still firmly in place. She had to agree with James: Jen did look very pretty…

******

After the end of practice, Alex stood in the shower wondering what had come over her at her little brother’s comment. Jennifer was beautiful, no doubt about that. But honestly…! Blushing like a girl with a silly crush, that was _so_ not her style!

Sighing loudly, she turned around to reach for the shampoo and nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed Ashley standing under the shower next to hers, staring at her oddly.

“Jesus Christ, Ash!! You scared the shit out of me!! Make some noise next time, will you?”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes, Alex, and you’re telling me to make some noise?” Ashley raised an eyebrow at her friend. “You wanna tell me where you were just now?”

“Humm… Inside my head…” was the brunette’s lame answer.

“Well, I could see that… You’re not wondering about asking that girl Angelica out, are you?” the girl waited for the exact moment her question hit her friend.

“What???!!!” Alex’s expression just then was so comical that Ashley burst out laughing; she had to hold onto the showerhead in order not to fall down.

****** 

In the meantime, as the players retreated to the showers, the students filtered out of the gym into the early evening.

JJ walked between Jen and David, holding their hands and grinning widely. Jack and Erik discussed the probability of their team winning the next match and maybe even the State Championship.

“So, JJ, what did you think?” David questioned, looking down at the brown-haired boy.

“Alex is the best!”

The older boy laughed at the answer. “You’re right about that. I think Angelica agrees with you in that respect.” If asked, David would deny setting up his friend. But when he saw Jen frown and look over her shoulder to glare at the aforementioned girl, he thought his meddling was legitimate.

“Who’s Angelica?” JJ asked, a bit confused.

“Oh, she’s just a girl that has the biggest crush ever on your sister.” Jack answered, elbowing Erik and smirking.

“A cru- what-what?” James Junior wrinkled his forehead trying to understand the word. His expression was just too cute.

Jennifer’s murderous looks at Angelica and her friends were telling a whole story of their own. “Clueless…” Jack muttered and shook his head. His two friends agreed wholeheartedly.

******

“Alex? Alex!” Ashley snapped her fingers in front of her friend’s face. “You’re spacing out on me again.”

The girl blinked several times. “What?” she asked, pulling a T-shirt over her head.

“My God, woman! What’s with you today? You’re not mad at me for teasing you about Angelica, are you? Because, really, I’m just messing with you. I’d kill you if you even considered asking that girl out. Not that there’s anything wrong about you going out with a girl, or anything. But Angelica isn’t that great looking and she’s a few screws short up here…” She poked Alex’s forehead trying to get her point across. “And you could always date a guy, I’m not saying it has to be a girl…” And on she went on her tirade.

“Ash? Ash!!” The girl shut up abruptly when Alex grabbed her shoulders. “I get it! No asking Angelica out; you don’t mind if I’m gay, hell, you don’t mind if I’m straight. Anything else?”

Ashley giggled and shook her head no. “But, seriously… What’s bugging you?”

“Nothing, really… I’m probably just tired…”

Her friend didn’t buy the excuse, but decided it was best not to press further.

They left the locker room, waving goodbye to their teammates. Leaving the building they looked around for their friends. Alex spotted them first and called out to Jennifer.

And that’s when it hit Ashley.

As soon as the brunette had spoken up, several things happened in short order: Jen, who had been glaring at Angelica, perked up immediately; her shorthaired, tomboy friend was sporting a rather goofy grin in response; Angelica scowled and made to walk towards Jennifer to do God knows what, only to be held back by her friends who had been with her in the gym gawking at Alex during practice.

All in all, Ashley decided that her friend Alex was going to be asking Jen out, sooner or later (whether the girl realized it or not). And Angelica? Well, she could only wait and see…

****** 

As was usual with Alex and her friends, every Friday night they would try and get together at one of their houses for dinner and movies. Some of them stayed for the night, while others were picked up by their parents.

That Friday, the gathering had been hastily changed to Sara and Sofia’s house because Jack’s parents would be out of town during the weekend. That was why, when Sofia opened the front door, she was greeted by six smiling teenagers and a grinning 4-year-old James.

Stepping aside, she invited them in.

“Mom is parking the car.” Alex informed.

Sofia nodded “The pizza should be here in about half an hour. I ordered the usual.”

“Thanks, Mom!”, “Thanks, Ms. Curtis!” were her answers as the teenagers disappeared to Alex’s room to dump their school and gym bags.

JJ pulled on his mom’s pant leg and stretched his arms up. She smiled and picked him up. “You had a good day?”

He grinned again. “Auntie Cat picked me up and I watched Alex play basketball. She was the best! She scored a lot of points.”

Sara came in just in time to hear his excited chatter. “At least someone had fun today…” Then she disappeared down the hall towards the bedroom, muttering about politics and bureaucracy. The detective raised an eyebrow.

“I think mommy had a bad day at work…” Junior said, his big brown eyes following his brunette mother.

“Humm…” Sofia agreed with a nod and set the boy down. He scampered away to his room and the detective made to follow her wife, but before she could take one step, Sara re-emerged from the room. She was then taken by surprise, when the brunette threaded her hands in blonde tresses and kissed her passionately. Had Mrs. Jenkins been watching, she would’ve started spouting about the seven deadly sins and how homosexuality should be considered the eighth. Resting her hands on Sara’s waist and pulling her closer, Sofia responded and sighed when the kiss eased and became sweeter.

After what seemed like an eternity, the CSI pulled away gently, grinning like a lovesick fool. Never breaking their embrace, Sofia leaned her forehead against her wife’s. “Not that I’m complaining, but what was that about?”

“Oh, nothing much, really. I just love you.” The brunette replied simply and kissed the blonde again.

They separated when they heard some giggling and someone whisper “Awwww, so cute!” They turned towards the hallway and found Ashley and Jennifer grinning foolishly, probably imagining their own happy endings. Alex groaned and covered her eyes, shaking her head. The boys smiled, thinking two of their friends we’re just as love-struck as the two women.

And then, to Alex’s utter dismay, JJ came bounding into the living room and David said: “Hey, JJ, you remember when we said Angelica had a crush on your sister?” he waved to the boy’s mothers “That is what we meant. Angelica looks at Alex like that.”

“Ehhh??” James asked. “Angelica loves Alex?” He didn’t understand when the older boys started laughing, joined by Ashley when she saw her shorthaired friend’s look.

Sara and Sofia blinked and looked at each other, then at their daughter. The young brunette couldn’t decide what to do first – kill Dave or try and hide the blush she knew was clearly visible. Jen wasn’t too happy about the situation either; she promised to herself then and there that if that Angelica girl ever got anywhere near Alex, she’d have to suffer the consequences.

******

After the ringing of the bell, signalling the arrival of the pizzas, broke the rather awkward situation, the children settled themselves in front of the TV. After some arguing about what movie to watch, they decided on ‘Finding Nemo’ – mostly because JJ and his cute antics convinced everyone that that was a good movie to start off with.

Hugging a big plush replica of Nemo, James Junior sat between his sister’s legs on the floor, dividing his attention between the movie and the food Alex would give him. Jen sat next to them, while the remaining four teenagers had spread out on the three couches. The adults had been banned to other parts of the house, as usual.

Sitting in the kitchen, Sara and Sofia discussed what had transpired earlier.

“So, who is this Angelica anyway? Alex has never mentioned her…” Sofia asked, in between bites.

“Humm… I think she’s one of her many ‘fans’… Or at least that’s what I’ve heard Ashley say. And apparently this girl has a huge crush on our daughter.” Sara answered, grinning. She found the whole thing quite funny.

“Then maybe it’s just one sided, if Alex never said anything about her…”

“Sofia, do you really think she would say anything about having a crush on anyone, boy or girl?” Sara waved her fork around “She’s a teenager. It’s not in their nature to share anything with the parents. Besides, did you tell your mother about your first crush, or your first boyfriend? Or was it girlfriend?” the brunette furrowed her brow trying to recall one of their many conversations about the subject.

“Boyfriend. And no, I didn’t tell my mother about it.”

“Anyway, can you imagine our Alex having a crush on someone?” Sofia had to chuckle at Sara’s silly expression. She, too, thought the situation was funny.

“Actually, I think she already does.” The brunette turned serious at her wife’s comment.

“She does?” the detective just nodded “And how, might I ask, do you know about this?”

Looking over the counter towards the living room to make sure they weren’t overheard, Sofia motioned for the other woman to lean closer and shared the evidence she had uncovered so far.

******

When JJ fell asleep against her at the end of ‘Finding Nemo’, Alex carried him to his room and tucked him in, while her friends picked the next movie and cleaned up whatever remained of the pizzas.

Entering the kitchen to get more drinks, she was greeted by an odd picture: her mothers were, apparently, partaking in some school gossip with Ashley and Jack. What she found most disturbing though, were her mothers’ mischievous grins and Ashley’s giggling.

“Ash, you’re not going on about Angelica again, are you?” she asked, frowning.

“Oh, no, no. Don’t worry.” She giggled some more and pulled a muttering Jack out of the kitchen. Alex could have sworn her friend said something about someone being clueless, but knowing Jack and her friends, she probably wouldn’t want to know.

Eyeing her grinning mothers suspiciously, she grabbed the drinks and left. The frown was still in place when she joined Jennifer back on the floor.

******

“So, you still think I’m crazy?” Sofia asked when she was sure the teenagers were fully engrossed in the movie again.

“I don’t know…”

“Sara. Her friends just told us what happened today. Alex doesn’t blush unless it’s under extreme circumstances. And Jen is a really sweet girl; she wouldn’t get all territorial if it wasn’t for feelings stronger than friendship towards our daughter.”

The brunette looked over the counter at her daughter. When had she grown up so quickly?

“That would explain the picture…” she mumbled, smiling.

“Picture? What picture?” the blonde asked, gazing over at her wife.

“The one on her bedside table. All of her pictures of her friends are all over the walls or in albums, but the one where she’s with Jen isn’t. She always says it’s her favourite picture…”

******

Unaware of her mothers’ discussion of her love life, Alex stretched her arms out and rested them on the couch behind her. Whether she realized it or not, Jen leaned closer to her friend and ended up resting her head on the brunette’s shoulder.

The two friends weren’t aware of how close to snuggling they were, but Ashley was. Nudging Dave with her foot, she drew his attention towards the pair. He smiled and shook his head.

In the kitchen, Sofia watched as all the doubts Sara still had, evaporated. The CSI was even more surprised when she noticed Alex playing with some loose strands of Jen’s hair.

“I think we’re going to have the birds and the bees talk sooner than we planned…”


	8. Mrs. Jenkins on a rampage

Summer school holidays were never calm in the Sidle and Curtis household. Four children, who most of the year attended school, or in JJ’s case, preschool, would suddenly have a huge amount of free time. And everyone knows that kids with too much free time are bound to cause trouble.

Also, Sofia and Sara couldn’t just put their jobs on hold because their children were on summer break. After all, there were still crime scenes to process and killers to catch.

It was on one of those days, when the two women were working, that Alex was designated the babysitter. A loud crash and a yelled “Arrrrghhhhhhh!!!” had her jumping out of bed, still half asleep and hair sticking in every direction, and dashing to the living room to find it empty. Frowning, she checked the kitchen clock only to realize it was 7 o’clock in the morning, which meant her siblings were still in bed. Even more confused than before and not at all happy at being up before 9 a.m. during her summer, she turned to head back to her room.

Then she heard it. Mrs. Jenkins, everyone’s favourite neighbour, was yelling very loudly at the newspaper boy for nearly running over five of her cats. Wincing at some of her words, Alex moved to the open the front door - since she was up, she wasn’t gonna miss the show.

Leaning against the doorjamb, she watched as the boy apologized over and over again. Her eyes nearly bulged out, when their neighbour started waving a rolling pin around in the air. Torn between wanting to help the boy and not wanting to deal with Mrs. Jenkins, the decision was taken from her hands when Mr. Carter dashed from across the street, arms flailing in the air.

Awoken by the yelling, Tommy, Jill and JJ peaked around their sister to see what was going on. “What happened?” the blonde-haired girl asked.

“I think the newspaper boy nearly ran over Mrs. Jenkins’ cats and then fell into her flowers.” Alex answered.

“Urgghh. She has too many cats anyway. A few less wouldn’t make a difference.” Tommy commented, yawning hugely.

They heard another yell and JJ hid behind his big sister, as Mrs. Jenkins started chasing Mr. Carter and the boy around her front yard and driveway, rolling pin held high. Alex had to pinch herself hard to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, but then they all burst out laughing when their neighbour almost tripped over her own cats.

When the two men outran the older woman and fled into Mr. Carter’s house, she turned around and noticed the devils that lived next door.

The Sidle Curtis kids all stopped laughing instantly and gulped. Mrs. Jenkins let out an enraged cry and charged forward, much like a warrior on a battlefield.

Jill screamed in alarm and ran to her room; Tommy dived behind a couch in the living room. Alex watched in horror as JJ sprang forward and bolted toward Mrs. Jenkins. To her and all the watching neighbours’ surprise, James Junior dove between the woman’s legs and came out on the other side laughing madly.

Mrs. Jenkins dropped the rolling pin to hold her skirt in place and glared at the little boy. He just grinned and waved, which set the woman after him.

******

Sofia was fully aware that she had worked a double shift and hadn’t had much sleep, but she thought she’d lost her mind for good when she approached her house that morning. Blinking several times in the hope of not succumbing to insanity, Sofia watched as a madly laughing JJ ran away from an irate Mrs. Jenkins. She nearly drove into a bush on her front lawn when a rolling pin flew past her windshield.

Parking the car, she noticed a dumbstruck Alex at the door, mouth hanging open. Her other two children peaked around the brunette girl. Using the car as cover – as she did whenever there was a shootout – Sofia moved to the front door.

“ _What_ …?” the detective couldn’t even begin to formulate a sentence and Alex shook her head and looked helplessly at her.

“I think I woke up in a parallel universe…” was the girl’s response.

Amidst the cheering from the neighbours, JJ dashed past Mr. Carter and high-fived him. The man had to quickly retreat back into his house as Mrs. Jenkins ran past, wielding a pan.

“Where did she get _THAT_?” Sofia asked. “She just threw a rolling pin, so _where_ …?” She never got an answer…


	9. Fight

Jennifer Mitchell had thought her day couldn’t get any worse than it already had been so far. Of course, whenever someone thinks or says that, Fate usually intervenes and proves them wrong.

The first class of the morning had been maths and her teacher hadn’t been very happy about her latest score in one of the tests they had. The man had made her promise to find a tutor and had set her extra homework, so she would start working more and improve her grades. Jen had scowled at him for the rest of the class. Her grades were fine, great actually. Only maths tended to cause problems.

Then she found herself science class.

Her lab partner talked about the latest gossip: who was dating whom (“Seriously, Anna is way too good for that geek.”), who broke up with whom (“Serves Natasha right, cheating on her boyfriend with his best friend…”), her latest crush on a guy from the lacrosse team (“Isn’t he just hunky?”), on and on.

What made her already volatile temper snap, was the girl saying that Angelica, from her Literature class, had finally got her wits together to ask Alex, basketball team captain, out. The deed was supposed to happen the next break.

Jen’s eye twitched, her nostrils flared, and she turned a menacing glare on her lab partner. “Angelica is _what_?”

Gulping at the sudden change from completely uninterested to down-right scary, the girl laughed nervously. She sagged in relief when the bell rang, and Jennifer stomped out of the room.

Passing Jack and Ashley in the corridor, she didn’t even acknowledge them. They watched her walk towards an unsuspecting Angelica and scrambled after their friend.

“Angelica!” the girl in question turned at someone calling her name “Is it true?”

Fully aware of what Jen was asking, she flipped her hair behind her shoulders and crossed her arms. “Is what true?” she asked, smirking innocently.

Slamming the girl against the lockers, Jennifer ground out “Don’t… You… Dare!”

Not fazed in the least Angelica threw back “Why? Are you afraid Alex will actually say yes, when I ask her out?”

Now one knew, who hit whom first, but the fight that ensued would have put some wrestlers to shame.

While everyone cheered, Ashley and Jack tried to break up the fight. “Jen! Stop it!” Ash yelled and tried grabbing one of her friends’ arms, while Jack grabbed the other girl around the waist and tried pulling her away.

Alerted by the ruckus, principal James came walking down the hall and with the help of another teacher separated the still squabbling girls.

******

Jennifer sat in the infirmary with a bloody lip and glaring at the other student, as the principal preached about lack of respect and that two young ladies should know better than to behave like that. Thinking it couldn’t get any worse, she jumped in her seat when Alex slammed the door open.

“Miss Curtis, can I help you?” the principal asked.

“I heard about what happened and came to check on Jen…” the brunette trailed off when she noticed her friend’s state: rumpled clothing, hair askew and bloody lip. “Holy Shit!”

“Miss Curtis, watch your language! And wait outside until I’m finished!”

******

When she was allowed back in, the school nurse was tending to the scratches on Angelica. Completely ignoring them, Alex moved to stand in front of Jen, eyebrow raised. The girl looked at her friend and then dropped her eyes in shame.

From the door, Jack, Dave, Erik and Ashley watched apprehensively, but ready to intervene if necessary.

She would later question herself about her actions but seeing Jen like that pulled at Alex. She took a step closer and wrapped her arms around the girl’s shoulders and pulled her towards her body. Jennifer blushed furiously, but relented, resting her forehead against the brunette’s chest and closing her eyes.

Angelica fumed, and glared at the nurse when she whispered something about young love. The four friends at the door smiled in relief. “Now we’re getting somewhere…”


	10. Epiphanies and Confessions

Epiphanies happened at the oddest locations and opportunities. A person could be sitting on the toilet and suddenly have an epiphany; or it could happen while in the bath (like with Archimedes… only legend has it he started running down the street completely naked…).

To Jennifer it had come after her fight with Angelica.

At the time, she had been sitting in the infirmary, Alex’s arms around her. She remembered thinking she could stay there forever. Somewhere along that line of thought it hit her, very suddenly, just what the fight had been about – she didn’t want Alex dating Angelica, or any other girl for that matter.

Now she sat, two weeks later, with three of her best friends in Alex’s living room doing homework. The brunette had offered to help her in maths, and because Ashley and Jack were working on a science project, they had decided Ms. Sidle was the best person to guide them along.

When the tomboy started on equations and other things similarly difficult (or difficult for her anyway), Jen started drifting off.

She had been thinking about how she loved Alex’s short hair, when a hand waving in front of her snapped her back to the present. “Jen, are you listening to me?” the girl asked.

She blushed at being caught daydreaming.

“Are you feeling alright? ‘Cause you look kind of flushed…” The blush only increased when a worried Alex put a hand on her forehead.

Their interaction had attracted the attention of the other three people present. Sara smiled at the worried look on her daughter’s face and at Jen’s attempts to reassure her. Next to the brunette woman, Ashley and Jack whispered back and forth.

“You know, I think Jen finally figured it out.”

The girl raised an eyebrow “You think so?”

Jack nodded “She’s been spacing out more than usual and whenever Alex walks into the room she blushes. And that fight with Angelica could have only been about one person…”

“Humm… Now if Alex would just get it together…” Ashley muttered, looking back to her friends.

“Alex, really. I’m fine. It’s just these things…” Jen waved to her maths book “… are really boring and I just spaced out.” If only she could get the blush under control, that was actually believable.

Not entirely convinced, the tomboy opened her mouth to argue further, when suddenly the front door opened, and her blonde mother walked in with Tommy, Jill and JJ.

The 4-year-old boy bounded into the living room and hugged Jennifer. She patted his head lovingly and hugged back; she absolutely adored the little boy and his cute grins.

“Hey, JJ! Don’t I get a hug too?” Ashley complained good-naturedly. He smiled and shook his head no. Before she could look affronted, Jill came up to her and hugged her.

Alex just shook her head while everyone else chuckled.

****** 

Later that day, after all the homework and tutoring was done, Jack and Alex had moved to the backyard to shoot some hoops, while the two girls chatted with Sara and Sofia in the kitchen. JJ sat in the living room drawing and colouring away, while Jill and Tommy argued about what to watch on the TV.

“So, Jennifer, Alex told us you were in a fight?” the girl nearly choked on the juice she was drinking at the detective’s question.

“I, uhh… well…” she was blushing again.

“She just stormed out of science class, slammed Angelica against the lockers and then the fight started. They had to be sent to the infirmary.” Ashley supplied, which earned her a glare from her friend. “Oh, and she won’t tell us what it was about.” She added, although she was fairly certain she knew what the cause had been. After all, rumors did travel fast.

“Well, when I was still in school boys fought over girls and sometimes girls would fight over boys…” Sofia grinned mischievously. Sara frowned at her wife’s words; the blonde was up to something again. “Were you fighting with that Angelica girl over a boy, Jennifer?”

This time the girl did choke on her drink. The CSI rolled her eyes at the other woman; Sofia and subtlety did not mesh in certain situations.

Trying to get her breathing back under control, Jen managed to stutter: “No! It certainly wasn’t over any boy…” Only too late did she realize what she’d said.

“Oh, and what is that supposed to mean now?” Ashley asked, grinning evilly “Was the fight over a _girl_ , then?”

Blushing furiously, the girl just groaned and dropped her head on the table she was sitting at. That answered the question…

****** 

After being mercilessly teased by Ash, Jen just gave up and told them everything. Or almost everything; she conveniently forgot to say who the girl she had a crush on was. She had felt better, and Alex’s mothers had been surprisingly helpful. She did wonder though what would happen if they knew it was their own daughter they had been giving her tips on, on how to woo.

She had moved outside when Ashley left, and watched as Jack was beat over and over again by their friend.

“Ah, this ain’t fair!” He complained wiping his forehead.

“What isn’t fair?” Alex grinned at him “I think you’re just jealous that I can play really well and you… suck!”

The boy hit his friend on the back of the head. “Hey, I certainly don’t want any of those fan girls you have running around after you. Hell, Angelica is the worst of them all…”

The brunette rolled her eyes. “I don’t have that many fan girls… Do I?” she asked, frowning.

“Oh, don’t worry. Jen can fight them all off…” He smirked and then ran into the house before any of the two girls could chase after him.

The girl in question could feel her cheeks heating up again.

“Idiot.” Alex shook her head and extended a hand to her friend. “You wanna shoot some hoops?” Unable to resist the silly grin on the tomboy’s face, Jen agreed.

******

Mrs. Jenkins was talking to her dozens of cats again.

Tommy watched from his bedroom window as she fed them and chattered non-stop about her neighbours – “those two women… and those devils… How can God allow this? I’ve been nothing but devoted to him all my life and He punishes me like this…?”.

The boy shook his head; he really didn’t understand what the big deal was about having two moms. Some of his friends had two dads, or two dads AND two moms… He loved his mothers. And he liked messing around with Jill (even though he lost most of the time), and watching Alex play basketball, and running around with JJ in the park… Maybe Jilly-bean was right; their neighbour had too many cats and therefore didn’t like anyone else.

Leaving his room, he found Sara and Sofia in the kitchen.

“Mom, Mrs. Jenkins is being creepy again.”

Sofia looked up from the newspaper she was reading. “What is she spouting about this time? Little devils? Sins? God punishing her?”

“All of those.” Tommy grinned and peered into one of the pots his brunette mother was fussing over.

“That woman needs a husband. She can pester him instead of us…” the detective said, shaking her head.

Overhearing the conversation as he played a card game with Jill and James Junior, Jack offered his opinion “We should get her together with mine and Alex’s history teacher. The man is so dull and can talk for hours without interruption. That ought to keep Mrs. Jenkins occupied…”

******

Completely unaware of Mrs. Jenkins or the laughter she was causing inside the house, Alex and Jen stood outside shooting hoops. Or Alex was, at least; Jen either watched, silly grin on her face, or missed the target completely when the brunette insisted she try.

After her fifth miss in a row, Jennifer huffed and crossed her arms. “This is ridiculous. A person can only miss so many times in a row…”

Alex went to retrieve the ball and threw it back at the girl. “You need to work on your pose…”

Her friend grinned at that “You mean something like this?” She struck a pose, left hand on her hip and right arm stretched out in front of her, her fingers forming a victory sign.

The tomboy chuckled at the girl’s antics and Jen soon dissolved into giggles.

This alerted the lovely Mrs. Jenkins. She peered over the wooden fence that separated the two gardens and saw the oldest devil with one of her friends. She scowled and moved closer to hear what they were saying.

“Okay, hold the ball and move into position.” Jennifer did as she was told and stood before the net, eyeing it warily.

Without warning, Alex walked up behind her and rested her hands on Jen’s waist. The girl went beet red at the contact and nearly dropped the ball. Then the tomboy stepped even closer while explaining that she should widen her stance and relax. ‘ _Relax_?? How am I supposed to relax?’ the girl thought to herself.

“Now, your arms and hands. Scoring points in basketball is all about the wrist. You can throw the ball as hard as you want, but you’ll miss if you don’t use the wrist properly.” Still pressed up against Jen, Alex got a hold of the girl’s arms and positioned her hands. When she was satisfied, the brunette took a step back and told her friend to give it a try.

Jennifer never knew how she managed to hit the target, considering she was as red as a tomato and thinking about everything and anything completely unrelated to basketball. And Alex was standing too close still.

Mrs. Jenkins would have agreed with her. The devil was trying to corrupt the girl – the looks, the hands in places where they shouldn’t be… God may be punishing her with these neighbours, but she wasn’t gonna allow an innocent girl to fall into their midst.

What happened next was up for debate for a long time and proved to Mrs. Jenkins that she was right in her assumptions of corruption of innocent girls.

After successfully scoring, Jen threw her fist in the air and jumped a few times. Alex found this incredibly funny, but her friend had forgotten they were standing close to each other. So, when the girl turned around, she found herself nose to nose with the tomboy. Time seemed to stop then for the two girls.

Jen thought she should be feeling more embarrassed than she actually was, but for some reason she felt better than she had felt ever since she’d found out she had a crush on her best friend. Alex found the pink tinge on her friend’s cheeks rather cute and she suddenly had this incredible desire to lean forward and kiss her. Before she could think of what she was about to do, the brunette leaned in. When Jennifer realized what was about to happen, she swallowed. Hard.

Inside the house, Jack stood by the open garden doors, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Tommy was passing by and stopped abruptly. “They’re going to kiss.” That simple statement had Sara and Sofia jumping off the couch and heading towards the boys. Jill and little JJ peered from between their mothers’ legs.

Holding their collective breath, they all leaned forward when Alex did the same outside.

Of course, having a nosey neighbour like Mrs. Jenkins was never a good thing. Just as their lips were about to touch, the lady yelled “Holy Mary, Mother of God!!! What do you think you’re doing??”

Alex and Jennifer jumped apart so quickly, that the shorthaired brunette tripped and fell flat on her ass. Inside the house, Sofia let out a menacing growl and Jack was about ready to rip his hair out. Normally, the blonde would have been the one to antagonize their neighbour, but this one time Sara beat her to it. The detective could only watch as her wife lost her cool and stormed to the fence, raging with the still yelling Mrs. Jenkins.

Things like “God is going to punish you all!”, “You should mind your own damn business!”, “Crazy old lady!” and “Sinners!” could be heard around the neighbourhood for the following half hour.


	11. End of shift

Alex led a smiling Jill down the corridor of the CSI lab. Their blonde mother had just dropped them off and told them to wait in Sara’s office, where Tommy and JJ should be.

Turning around the corner, they ran into Wendy as she was exiting the DNA lab. “Hey, kids. What are you doing around here?”

“Waiting for our moms to finish work.” Jill answered grinning up at the woman. “We’re going to the movies afterwards.”

“Oh, that sounds fun. If only I didn’t have to work tonight, I’d join you.” The brunette sighed and continued on her way, waving her goodbyes.

As they were approaching their mother’s office, they heard some animated chatter coming from another office close by. Recognizing her brothers’ voices, Alex made a slight detour and found Tommy with Uncle Nick’s tarantula in his hand. JJ stared in awe at the big spider, while the Texan explained what insects it liked to eat.

“Urghh, creepy-crawlies…” The blonde girl muttered and hid behind her sister.

****** 

Meanwhile, in one of the lab’s conference rooms, Sara listened to her team as they wrapped up the latest case.

“So, now we’re just waiting for PD to get a hold of Jay Davidson and his business partner. The evidence pretty much speaks for itself, even if they don’t confess to murdering the victim.” Riley finished and the other four nodded in agreement.

The brunette supervisor was quite happy with their work and said so. “Alright, when the suspects are in custody, have Detective Vartan call you, Riley, and then leave the report on my desk as soon as possible. Ecklie’s been nagging me about late reports again…” Sara got up and stretched “I’m gonna try and leave before he finds me. Well, if I can find my kids first…” the woman grinned and left, telling them to go home and rest.

As she predicted, finding her children was easier said than done. After checking her office, the break room and Catherine’s office and finding them empty she headed for the Graveyard shift’s offices.

Nick and Greg were entertaining her four children. The boys and Alex were huddled around Nick’s desk, watching as his tarantula advanced on a fly; Jilly-bean sat on Greg’s lap and leafed through the photographs of his latest vacation in Hawaii.

“Can you surf uncle Greg?” the blonde girl asked, when she found a picture of him standing next to a surfboard. He told her about his attempts at impressing some girl with his surfing skills, which had little Jill giggling.

Shaking her head at him, Sara left to the locker room to get her belongings, knowing the kids wouldn’t be going anywhere.

******

Homicide Captain Sofia Curtis was pissed. The officers and detectives in the Police Department had kept their distance, in the interest of their own safety, when they heard loud yelling coming from the Captain’s office. Apparently, Undersheriff McKeen wasn’t happy with the outcome of the latest high-profile case, when he was informed that one of his many friends had been arrested for murdering his wife.

Unfortunately for the Undersheriff, Sofia would not let herself be intimidated by him or his friends in high places. That was why the man had left her office with an angry scowl and slammed the door so hard, the glass pane had rattled.

To all of the officers’ surprise, Captain Curtis’ bad mood disappeared as soon as her superior left the premises, and she was heard leaving her office humming a cheery tune.

****** 

Meeting Catherine on her way into the lab, Sofia shared the latest McKeen incident with the other woman.

“So, he’s just as pleasant as Ecklie these last few days…”

The detective nodded her agreement “Sara says the same thing. If it weren’t for the pay and the family benefits I get, I’d go back to being a detective; beats all the politics and bureaucracy, not to mention the terrifying amount of paperwork on my desk.”

The CSI chuckled at her friend. They entered the locker room and found the brunette CSI supervisor rummaging around in her locker.

Sofia smirked and walked up behind her wife, who had failed to notice their presence and therefore jumped when a hand touched her lower back. Before she could protest about being scared to death, the blonde woman pressed their lips together in a loving kiss, silencing Sara instantly.

They broke apart when Warrick and Kate walked in and whistled. Kate, being the youngest and most recent addition to Graveyard, was always impressed by the open nature of the relationship between the two women. Nevertheless, she always joined the guys in teasing the couple and this time was no exception.

“Shouldn’t you be taking this somewhere else ladies?” the woman asked, grinning. “After all, your shifts have ended…”

“You and Greg have been spending way too much time together…” Sara muttered.

Sofia smacked her on the shoulder. “Kate, my dear, I think you are jealous.” The blonde stated seriously, but then smirked “But don’t worry, we will be taking this to the movie theatre…” She scurried out of the locker room before her wife fully processed what she’d just said.

The three Graveyard shift CSIs laughed at the indignant look on Sara’s face, as she bellowed, “We are not teenagers!!” after the retreating detective.


	12. Little Big Family

Sara often wondered how she had gotten so lucky in life. Lying in bed at night, watching Sofia sleep, the brunette thought she didn’t deserve to be this happy; to love a woman like the detective and be loved in return, no questions asked; to have given birth to their first child, watching as Alex took her first steps and smiled her gap toothed smile, much like her own; to have Tommy’s blue eyes gazing at her curiously the first time she saw him; to see Jill’s cute grin and playful nature, so similar to her wife’s; and to have little JJ running around, causing a whirlwind of trouble and making everyone fall just a little bit more in love with him. The brunette feared that one day she’d wake up and none of it would be real, merely a dream.

However, every time Sofia caught her in one of her doubtful moods, she’d show her just why it wasn’t all a product of her imagination. The blonde woman would be rather possessive and relentless when making love to her on those occasions and Sara would completely forget everything else and succumb to her wife’s care.

Mostly, the CSI would only have to watch her wife playing around with their children in the backyard to have her lingering fears fly out the window.

That’s how she found her little big family after coming home one day after work. Sofia lay panting on the grass, with all the kids half lying on top of her. She could only chuckle at the picture they presented, silly grins plastered on their faces, grass stains on their clothes and the occasional giggle that originated from the human pile.

“What is the meaning of this?” Sara asked, trying for stern and unamused, but failing miserably.

The blonde woman didn’t look up, but waved a hand around “Oh, nothing. We were just having fun…” she let out another giggle, that had the kids laughing again.

Jill sat up and grinned at her brunette mother “Mommy was being silly to try and scare Mrs. Jenkins away.”

“And I see you all decided to help…” more giggling was the CSI’s reply, as Jill dropped back down onto Sofia’s leg.

******

Sara was in the kitchen preparing some drinks for her thirsty family, when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and Sofia rested her chin on her shoulder. Leaning back against her wife, the brunette sighed and smiled.

“Hey, you.” The detective whispered and laid a soft kiss on the other woman’s cheek.

The CSI turned in her wife’s embrace and kissed her gently, pulling the detective closer. Then and there, trapped between Sofia and the kitchen counter, Sara felt her world stabilize once again after a long day of murder and crime solving.

“Everything alright?” the blonde asked when she pulled away, tucking a loose strand behind the brunette’s ear.

“Never better.” Was the soft reply “Although you could use a shower right about now.” Sara crinkled her nose, only to receive a smack on the arm.

“Well, you try and keep up with the kids. I doubt you’d smell any better.”

Giving her wife a full-blown gap-toothed smile, the brunette woman went back to the drinks she had been pouring. “So, what did you do to Mrs. Jenkins this time?”

The detective smirked “I just fed her cats. She doesn’t like that apparently. And she liked it even less when Jill and JJ started playing around with them. Called them ‘children of sin’ and then Tommy comes out and throws a paper plane over her head. The woman went berserk.”

The CSI chuckled and handed a drink to the blonde. “And Alex? How did she get dragged into it?”

Sofia frowned at that “Well, she was looking kinda gloomy when she got home, so I figured there wasn’t any better way to cheer up than to try and make Mrs. Jenkins lose her head. It worked, but…”

“Yeah, she’s been like that ever since she almost kissed Jen.” Sara stated, looking over the counter towards the glass garden doors “You think we should try talking to her about it?”

“Babe, she’s your daughter. Remember what happened when I confronted you about a similar situation?”

Smiling sheepishly, the brunette nodded “Oh, yeah. That went wrong in so many ways…” she sighed, “So, we should wait until she comes to us…”

******

That evening, after the children had gone to bed and while Sara took a shower, Sofia sat in the living room staring at the TV, but her mind was still on her eldest daughter. She was a bit worried about Alex, even though she tried to convince herself that whenever the girl felt ready, she’d talk to her mothers.

The woman was pulled from her internal musings when someone entered the room. Looking over her shoulder, she found the subject of her thoughts glancing uncertainly at her. “Alex? Are you okay?”

The girl shook her head and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

Sofia could see the internal struggle clearly written on the young brunette’s face. She smiled softly and patted the seat next to her. “Why don’t you come sit down for a bit? You can tell me what’s on your mind when you feel better…”

Smiling gratefully, Alex padded over to her mom and snuggled into her. Resting an arm across the girl’s shoulders, the blonde pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry. It’ll be alright.” She whispered reassuringly.

Sara found them in that same position, long after Alex had fallen asleep snuggled against Sofia.

Despite being worried about her daughter, the brunette found the scene rather touching - the detective would, every now and then, run her fingers through brown locks, while the girl slept peacefully in her mother’s arms.

Joining her wife on the couch, the two women watched over their little girl wondering, not for the first time, how they had been so lucky to find happiness with each other and raise their little big family together.


	13. Crush

On that sunny Thursday afternoon, the house was rather quiet even though everyone was home. Tommy and Jill were in the living room doing their homework, books and papers spread over the coffee table. Jill was actually finished, so she watched her brother as he did his; she couldn’t understand a thing of what he was doing, but on she watched. The blonde boy didn’t mind it either.

JJ sat in his big sister’s room playing with one of her baseballs. Alex stood at the window, looking out to their back garden.

Their mothers were outside, enjoying the rare free afternoon. Sofia sat on a sun lounger, Sara sitting between her legs and leaning back against her. The detective had an arm wrapped around the brunette’s middle and waved the other around while telling an anecdote.

Alex watched as her brunette mother laughed and then turned her head to kiss the blonde. They remained like that, kissing and gazing into each other’s eyes, for some time.

Sighing, she thought about Jen and their almost kiss. It had finally hit her that she had a crush on her friend, and she couldn’t decide whether Mrs. Jenkins interruption had been a good or bad thing. She couldn’t decide either, what she was gonna do about it.

Every time she saw her friend, she’d blush and stutter like many of her fan girls did when they found the nerve to actually talk to her.

“Are you thinking about Jen again?” JJ asked, out of nowhere, looking up to his sister.

Alex blushed again and coughed “What, uhh… makes you ask that JJ?”

“You look silly. Just like mommy does sometimes, when she is kissed…”

“Yes, I get it JJ.” Alex interrupted before he could go any further. This wasn’t a good sign; if she was starting to look goofy and sporting silly grins, she had it bad.

The boy just gave a wide grin and added, “You almost kissed Jen.”

The loud crash that reverberated throughout the house had the two women rushing inside and the children in the living room looking down the hallway. Sofia was thinking of grabbing her gun, when a loud groan and several choice words coming from her daughter’s room reassured her that no perp had broken into the house.

The two women proceeded down the hallway to the girl’s room and found JJ sitting on the floor blinking at his sister who lay buried beneath books, papers and CD cases that had fallen from the shelves.

“Alex? What in the world just happened in here?” Sara asked, shaking her head at the mess. Another groan came up from the pile.

James Junior, in all his innocence, looked to his mothers and proclaimed again “Alex almost kissed Jen.”

Sofia could see her daughter go red even though she was still lying face down on the floor; any redder and she’d be setting the fire alarms off. She bit her lip, trying to suppress the chuckles threatening to come out. The brunette woman next to her was having the same problem.

Alex decided that she wasn’t gonna move even if the house came crashing down on her.

****** 

By unspoken agreement, the women decided that Sofia should stay to try and talk to their very embarrassed daughter, while Sara picked up a protesting JJ and closed the door behind them. She would stay in the living room and discuss the situation with the other children.

Crouching down beside the still unmoving brunette, the detective started moving some of the books and papers off the girl. “Alex? Are you alright?”

The tomboy didn’t reply, just sighed audibly.

“Alex, come on, let’s sit on the bed and we can talk.” Sofia ruffled the girl’s hair and smiled.

The brunette peered up at her mother suspiciously. She couldn’t believe that it would be so simple; her blonde mother tended to joke around a lot, and she wasn’t willing to put up with the woman’s grins and tricks – the situation was bad enough as it was.

“I’m serious. Your mother and I have been worried about you and we want to help, but you have to tell me what’s going on.” The detective smiled again, trying to reassure the girl “No joking. I promise.” She held out her pinkie finger, only to have Alex roll her eyes.

“Mom! I’m fourteen; the whole pinkie promise thing is more suited for Jill…” the tomboy sat up, shaking off the remaining papers and CD cases.

The blonde woman just grinned, and they ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor, facing each other.

“Now, care to tell me what this more than usual mess was about?” Sofia turned serious and gesticulated to the nearly empty shelves whose contents now lay on the floor around them.

For the next hour or so, mother and daughter talked; or Alex blushed and stuttered, and Sofia filled in the blanks, trying to make the girl see that having a crush wasn’t the end of the world.

“It is, if your 4-year-old brother throws it back in your face…” the tomboy had muttered.

The woman couldn’t help but grin at that. “Well, next time you want to have your first kiss with anyone, don’t do it where your entire family can see and, most importantly, not in front of Mrs. Jenkins.”

The girl opened her mouth to protest when it hit her “Entire… family…? You… saw…” The detective could have sworn she could see smoke coming out of the girl’s ears; she had turned scarlet and Sofia tried very hard not to burst out laughing.

And then, to make matters worse, there was a knock on the door and Sara poked her head in. Seeing her wife failing miserably at containing her laughter and her beet red daughter, the brunette figured the ‘talk’ had gone well, or as well as it could have possibly gone. So, she decided to add her two cents.

“So, Ashley and Jack were right then? Should we be expecting Jen over more often?”

“You knew it was Jen?? And Ash and Jack too????!!!!” Alex almost yelled. Sofia lost it then and fell on her back laughing really hard.

The CSI grinned cheekily. “Alex, it was hard to miss. So, when’s your first date?”

Sara had to duck to avoid getting hit by a flying pillow and then run when her daughter started chasing her around the house with another. “MOM!!!!!”


	14. Family Picnic

Sara and Sofia had very specific family traditions regarding Christmas, Easter, Independence Day and other holidays worth mentioning. They also had other family traditions that didn’t apply to any holiday, like weekend picnics that included the children’s grandparents and sometimes the women’s co-workers.

So, after much planning and negotiations with their respective bosses, the two women had a free weekend to themselves and their family. And because the weather forecast announced sunshine and only a light breeze for all of Saturday, they packed food and blankets and drove toward the park.

“JJ, would you sit still?” Tommy complained from the backseat.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Sara looked over her shoulder to see what was happening. Her 4-year-old son sat in his chair, bouncing happily and grinning at his brother. Tommy just rolled his eyes at the little boy.

Further back in the minivan were Alex and Jill who looked as excited as the two boys; they kept throwing a tennis ball around and sometimes a Frisbee, while giggling and chatting incessantly.

The CSI just smiled and glanced over at Sofia. “I think this was a very good idea.”

The detective grinned, never taking her eyes off the road “A picnic is always a good idea. Even better when the grandparents join in, right kids?”

Shouts of agreement and happy chatter could be heard from outside of the car, which earned them some odd looks from other drivers and even some people on the sidewalks.

******

A few minutes later they had arrived at their destination. As soon as Sara opened the car door, James Junior hoped out, smiling gleefully, and dashed off to find the perfect picnic spot. The brunette barely had time to pull herself together and run after him before he completely disappeared from view. “JAMES!!!”

Sofia could only shake her head, while the other three kids chuckled.

“Come one, kids. Let’s get the stuff out of the car. You all have to help!” The detective warned as soon as she noticed Tommy trying to sneak away. “Thomas Sidle!”

The boy stopped, foot raised to take another step. He immediately turned around and smiled innocently. “Yes, mommy?”

The blonde woman pointed wordlessly to a bag full of balls, Frisbees and Heaven only knew what else. The blonde boy made his way over and grabbed the bag, still smiling.

Sofia patted his head and told him to go find his brunette mother.

It was only 10 minutes later that they all managed to find each other; Sara carried a laughing JJ, while admonishing him about the perils of running off alone; the detective carried their picnic basket full of food, while Alex carried one full of dishes and cutlery; Jill held the blankets over her head, looking curiously around at the other people in the park; Tommy had dropped his bag and himself under a tree, signalling their spot for the next few hours.

Once the blankets were set on the grass, the children busied themselves with their soccer balls and Frisbees and Sara threw herself on the ground, releasing a long sigh.

Sofia grinned at her sprawled wife “What? Don’t tell me you’re getting too old to run after JJ…”

The CSI glared up at the blonde “I’m NOT old. I was just enjoying the fresh air…”

“Of course you were. And now you’re just gonna take a nap, like Mrs. Jenkins does, leaving me to prepare your food and tend to the childr-”. Sofia never finished her sentence, because Sara tackled her to the ground.

When a very loud shriek was heard, the squirrels hid in the trees and the four children looked over to see their mothers rolling around on the blankets.

The blonde woman had landed on her back and let out another very undignified shriek when the brunette started tickling her. “SARA!!! STOP!!”

“Oh, you want me to stop? I don’t think so… Comparing me to Mrs. Jenkins…” was the CSI’s muttered reply.

The Sidle Curtis children gawked at the two women and Alex decided to move further away, to prevent other people from assuming they were, in any way, related to them.

******

Former Homicide Captain Jim Brass was very happy to see his big adopted family again. Approaching the area they had taken over, he first noticed Sara and Sofia cuddling under a tree. He still remembered when the CSI had officially told him about their relationship; because unofficially he had long suspected something was going on – Sofia had been far too cheery and grinning foolishly all the time and Sara had been more at ease than he had ever seen her before. He had been very happy for his two girls, even more so when he had been named grandfather of their children.

JJ and Jill noticed his presence first and abandoned their tennis balls in favour of hugging the man. “Grandpa Jim! You made it!” Jill said joyfully, embracing one of his legs.

He picked the two kids up, chuckling at their antics. “Of course I made it! I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to see my favourite grandchildren.”

“Grandpa, we are your only grandchildren…” Alex gave a gap-toothed smile as she walked over.

“Yes, but you’re still my favourite.” Jim reaffirmed, ruffling the older girl’s hair and high-fiving Tommy. “Now, kids, I can see you’re all doing well, but have you been taking care of your moms?”

He received three eager ‘yesses’, but Alex rolled her eyes thinking of the tickle fest that had happened earlier.

“I think they are a hopeless case. Whether we take care of them or not, they are still crazy and googley-eyed all the time…” the tomboy said loud enough for the two women, who were currently disentangling themselves from each other, to hear.

Sofia got up to greet Jim and then turned to her daughter, seeing the perfect opportunity to let him in on the girl’s current crush. She smirked and shot back “You mean googley-eyed in the same way you are whenever Jen is around?”

Sara and the three children giggled at the brunette’s look of mortification, while Jim raised an eyebrow – that was an interesting development he wasn’t yet aware off.

Alex, however, couldn’t see what was so funny and ended up chasing her blonde mother around, throwing a tennis ball every now and then. This only served to increase her mother’s grin and the laughter coming from under the tree.

******

“Now, who’s old?” Sara asked, grinning evilly at her wife. Sofia had barely managed to keep her eldest daughter off of her and when she had been tackled to the ground for the second time that day, the brunette felt it was only fair to throw her wife’s earlier question back at her.

Jim, who was curious about his granddaughter’s crush, stopped the detective from giving an equally evil retort and the three adults spent the next few minutes discussing the subject.

The kids had gone back to their previous activities: Jill and JJ threw tennis balls around and Alex and Tommy played around with a soccer ball, trying to determine who was best at the sport.

This was how former Captain Diane Curtis found them.

The tomboy saw her first and waved. Tommy, seeing the golden opportunity to show his sister just how good he was at soccer, aimed and kicked the ball. Caught off guard, Alex fell to the ground when the ball hit her ass with tremendous force. Because JJ had been watching his older brother, he wasn’t paying attention and accidentally hit Jill in the head with one of the tennis balls.

The end result: two very angry girls chasing after their laughing brothers.

******

Grandparents, parents and children were enjoying a family picnic, something that only happened on rare occasion due to the women’s jobs. That was why it was such a special occurrence and little JJ wasted no time in retelling his latest adventures to Papa Jim, who shared the boy’s name, and Grandma Diane, who had pretty eyes.

“And Miss Evans said I was very talented, that I’m an artist.” The 4-year-old puffed out his chest in pride and grinned widely. Miss Evans, his pre-school teacher, had indeed said the boy was very talented and had recommend he take up drawing or painting lessons when he started school.

Sara smiled proudly at her son and patted his head “Yes, JJ you’re an artist and we’ll put you in a track team too because you’re always running around, leaving everyone else behind.”

Suddenly their attention was drawn to the two older children playing soccer. “Alex! That was not fair!” Tommy yelled at his brunette sister.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you fell on your ass. I told you I was the best at soccer!”

The 10-year-old boy growled and launched himself after the tomboy, who promptly ran away laughing.

Sofia shook her head at the two siblings and leaned back against the tree. Jill crawled over and sat on her mother’s lap, cute grin on her face. She then turned to her grandmother. “Grandma, are you coming to watch my play?”

“Your Cinderella play?” The girl nodded. Diane smiled at her grandchild. “Of course I am! In fact, I’ll even take you out to ice cream afterwards to celebrate!”

The blonde girl let out a very happy ‘Yay!’. JJ poked his head under his blonde grandma’s arm and asked: “Can I have ice cream too? Mommy doesn’t let us eat ice cream before dinner…”

Sara had to chuckle at her wife’s frown, when Diane looked over to the detective.

“What?” she asked defensively. Even though she was a grown woman, with a stable job and a family she loved, her mother still managed to make her feel like she was back in her teens. “It’s not healthy to eat ice cream before dinner. All that sugar ruins their teeth.”

“I didn’t say anything Sofia.” The former Captain grinned mischievously. “Although I remember this one time when you were 8, when you ate an entire carton of chocolate ice cream before dinner and ended up-”

“Yes, mother.” The blonde interrupted before the other woman could go any further “I remember, thank you.”

“What happened Grandma?” Alex appeared from behind the tree, closely followed by Tommy. The tomboy grinned evilly at the prospect of having some ammunition against her blonde mother.

“Oh, no!” Sofia spoke up again, when the older blonde opened her mouth to reply, “You are NOT finishing that sentence!”

Completely ignoring her daughter, Diane faced her expectant audience. Even Jim and Sara had leaned in, not wanting to miss a single detail.

“Well, she ate the entire carton and when the neighbour’s son, who Sofia had a crush on, came over for a visit, she just puked all over him. Suffice to say he never came over again and Sofia ne-” The older woman was interrupted again because Jill shrieked and fell on the blanket, when the detective leapt up and tackled her mother to the ground.

A couple that was enjoying their own picnic a few yards away looked over when loud laughter and yelling was heard again. “I wonder if they’re trying to form a rugby team…” The man muttered, as he saw the same blonde woman rolling around on the ground for the third time that day.

******

“Mom, JJ is eating grass.” Tommy said and slurped through his straw. Alex had to clench her fist and try to remain calm, because she knew he was slurping loudly on purpose just to annoy her.

“James Junior! You’re not supposed to eat grass!” Sara admonished and reached for his hand.

“But mommy, it’s green like the yuckie veggies and you say I have to eat my veggies.”

Alex choked on her drink at her little brother’s statement and Jim had to pat her on her back, while trying to hide his amused grin.

While Sara patiently explained the difference between the yuckie veggies and grass to the brunette boy, Sofia tried to keep Jill’s food off of her clothes. “Jillian! I told you to be careful!” The detective admonished and caught the bits of tuna and mayonnaise coming out the end of the girl’s sandwich before they landed on her shirt.

It so happened that while trying to prevent the food from getting on the girl’s clothes, the blonde woman tipped her own sandwich too far and a tomato slice landed squarely on her leg with a squelch.

Diane started laughing and Sofia rolled her eyes and muttered something about it not being her lucky day. Jill grinned from ear to ear “Mommy, you are not a good example.”

Alex promptly choked on her drink again when she started laughing. She found it hilarious to see her mother being teased by grandma and Jill, considering the detective was the one who normally teased everyone else.

The detective scowled at her two daughters and tried unsuccessfully to clean the tomato off her jeans with a few napkins.

Seeing her struggling wife, Sara leaned over JJ and kissed the blonde woman on the cheek “Don’t worry, babe. I still love you, even covered in tomato.” The brunette grinned cheekily and quickly moved away before the glaring detective hit her in the head.

******

After lunch, the children dragged Grandpa Jim to play some soccer with them; the three women remained under the tree shade. Sara leaned back against Sofia and fell asleep after a few minutes, while the two Curtis women talked about the detective’s job and the crazy politics that came with it.

During the soccer game, in order to prevent Alex from getting to the ball, Jill thought it would be fun to latch onto her big sister’s leg. The tomboy stumbled and Tommy ran past them and scored a goal.

“Jillian! Get off me!” The brunette leaned down to grab her sister, but the little girl just disappeared between her legs, giggling hysterically. “Blondie! Get back here!”

The shouting and laughing woke Sara from her short nap and she blinked to clear the fog around her brain. Sofia chuckled behind her, clearly amused by their daughters’ antics.

Diane got up, which earned her two pairs of raised eyebrows. She just winked and walked over to her two granddaughters.

Alex yelped in surprise when she was rolled onto her back to find her grinning grandmother over her.

“What do you say, Jilly-bean? Should we teach your sister a lesson?”

The 14-year-old girl never had the chance to run when the two blondes started tickling her.

Sara smiled widely at her eldest daughter when she begged her sister and grandmother to stop, but they never let up and were soon in the middle of a tickle fest.

“You blondes are merciless. Especially with us brunettes…” The CSI commented and suddenly found herself on her back, a grinning Sofia on top of her.

“Oh, I know. But you wouldn’t have it any other way…” The detective leaned down and kissed her wife.


	15. Pumpkins

Halloween was two weeks away, which meant that Sofia and Sara would never find peace until they answered their children’s demands to get some costumes and pumpkins. Against their better judgement, especially because they knew that on Halloween the oddest crimes happened, they drove to the mall one evening. The two women had barely gotten out of the car, when they were grabbed by their kids and dragged off for some Halloween shopping.

Walking hand in hand, Jill and James Junior looked on in awe at the various displays prepared for the festivities; they could see some ghosts floating in one store, while another had many brooms and witch hats.

Both children were closely followed by the ever-watchful Sara, who also seemed taken aback by the amount of Halloween paraphernalia on sale.

“My God, I don’t even want to imagine how ridiculous the crimes are gonna be…” She said to herself, releasing a long sigh.

“Mommy! Mommy!” The CSI was shaken from her musings by JJ pulling on her leg and Jill looking up at her with wide blue eyes. “Can we do that?” The boy pointed to a particular store where a woman was entertaining several people, showing them how to carve the funniest shapes on different sized pumpkins.

The brunette frowned, when she remembered exactly what had happened the previous year – pumpkin smeared everywhere around the house and their four children covered from head to toe in orange-coloured goo.

“Oh, no! Absolutely not! I don’t want a repeat performance of last year!” She looked down at her children, frown still firmly in place.

“But mommy…” Jill pouted and pulled on her mother’s pants. Sara knew the girl was trying to employ a certain dissuasion technique that, more often than she cared to admit, actually worked: the wide pleading eyes, the cute pout and, sometimes, the little innocent smile. The CSI suspected this particular feature ran in the family, because Sofia had used it on her a few times; and what was worse was that Sofia’s mother used it too.

In spite of being utterly helpless when confronted with the, as she had dubbed it, ‘Curtis pout’, the brunette woman was determined not to give in this time; she didn’t want to come home after a very long day of Halloween themed crimes and have to clean pumpkin goo from her furniture.

However, the blonde girl only increased the intensity of her pout when her mother shook her head ‘No’.

Luckily for Sara and her furniture, Sofia and the two other children chose that moment to join them. “What’s going on?” the detective asked, seeing her pouting children and frowning wife.

“Pumpkins!” JJ exclaimed and pointed to the store again. Jill turned her pout to her blonde mother, hoping to get her to agree to some pumpkin carving.

“Don’t even think about it. And Jill, that face may work on your mother…” the detective gestured to the other woman “…but it doesn’t work on me.” And then she crossed her arms, implying that what she’d said was final.

“Aw, mom!” Alex intervened “Come on. We promise not to make a mess…” the tomboy gave an innocent gap-toothed smile, followed by Tommy’s version of the ‘Curtis pout’, Jill’s intensified pleading look and JJ’s cute grin.

“No!” The two women said at the same time, shaking their heads. They were, however, taken aback by the synchronised ‘Please!’ and innocent looks given by the children.

Sofia and Sara looked at each other, then at the grinning children, then back at each other. The blonde woman opened her mouth to provide a final negative answer, when her eldest daughter delivered a final blow to her resolve. “We could use it to scare Mrs. Jenkins and her cats…”

The CSI’s right eye twitched at the tomboy’s suggestion because she knew her wife would immediately fall for it; this was one of the times she wished the girl weren’t as smart as herself when it came to getting the detective to do anything she didn’t want to.


	16. Halloween

Sara knew it had been a bad idea to go Halloween shopping. When her wife and kids exited the shop, 20 pumpkins of all shapes and sizes in their wake, she nearly had an aneurism. She stood there, mouth hanging open, imagining all kinds of disastrous situations involving pumpkin goo and her furniture in the upcoming week.

Completely oblivious to the horrified look the CSI was throwing their way, Sofia and her children chatted animatedly about what shapes to carve and where to display the aforementioned pumpkins.

“We should build a pumpkin man and put it on Mrs. Jenkins front yard, right in front of her door.” Tommy suggested gleefully “So when she opens the door in the morning she’ll be scared to death.”

“Forget about the morning. She’d have to see it in the middle of the night, eyes glowing and all.” Alex said, picturing the scene in her head. She and her blonde brother promptly broke out laughing.

The detective sported an evil grin, imagining all possible scenarios regarding a shrieking Mrs. Jenkins running out her front door, her dozens of cats following close behind.

She was distracted, however, when she noticed her wife standing a few feet away, mouth hanging open and a horrified look on her face. Telling the kids to wait, she walked over and waved a hand in front of the woman’s face.

“Sara? Are you okay?”

The brunette started and blinked a few times, trying to get the image of herself skidding down the hallway and falling flatly on the floor due to slippery pumpkin goo out of her head.

“Are you completely crazy??!!” She nearly yelled when she remembered all the pumpkins.

Sofia, not expecting the sudden outburst, jumped so high in the air she would have made Alex’s leaps towards the basketball net seem little bunny-hops in comparison. Holding a hand over her racing heart the detective tried to reason with the other woman. “Sara, it’s only a couple of pumpkins-”

“A couple??” The CSI interrupted “There’s 20 in the cart!!”

“Yes.” Sofia nodded seriously, and then grinned widely “Gives four for each of the kids and four for me!”

Sara thought her wife had finally lost it. She was about to say so, when she heard Jill and JJ laughing at something their older siblings had said. Seeing the children’s happy faces made her pause and actually consider it couldn’t be _that_ bad to allow them some fun.

Turning back, she found Sofia smiling at her knowingly.

“Don’t say a word!” The brunette warned.

The blonde’s smile widened “Wasn’t going to. You’ll see; it’ll be fun. Imagine what we can do to Mrs. Jenkins…”

Sara snorted and watched as her wife turned to join the kids again. Then something occurred to her “You’ll be doing all the cleaning! Your idea, you deal with the consequences.” She grinned evilly when Sofia nearly tripped over her own feet.

******

Sofia knew it had been a good idea to go Halloween shopping. When the kids managed to convince Sara to help them pick some costumes, the detective knew this year’s Halloween was going to be fun - although there was nearly a murder to investigate, because when the CSI _cheekily_ suggested Alex dress as a fairy, the tomboy nearly strangled her own mother…

Cheeky comments aside, it had been a very productive evening; all the kids had their costumes (the women had adamantly refused to buy any for themselves, even when the ‘Curtis pout’ and ‘Sidle smile’ made an appearance) and the trunk of the car was loaded with pumpkins (as well as other parts of the car).

Chuckling at Sara’s grumbling about the big pumpkin sitting at her feet, Sofia drove the family home.

“Mom, we have to figure out what to do to Mrs. Jenkins this year.” Alex leaned forward, in between the passenger and driver’s seats, and looked at the detective.

“I’m sure between you dressing as a vampire, Jill as a witch, Tommy as a devil and a little skeleton-JJ, Mrs. Jenkins will think she died and went to Hell.” Sofia replied, smirking evilly.

“Imagine Mrs. Jenkins waving around her rosaries and praying Hail Mary’s, while JJ, dressed in his skeleton costume, chases her around…” Tommy added.

The mental image was too much and the three broke out laughing. Sara couldn’t help but join in.

Sitting next to Alex, James Junior held one of the smaller pumpkins “Mommy, I want to build a pumpkin man!” he exclaimed in order to be heard over the laughter.

That statement killed the CSI’s good mood; remembering all the pumpkins stowed around in the car as well as some of the plans she had overheard during the evening, Sara went back to her grumbling “I foresee pumpkin disaster in the future…”

******

The following two weeks proved to Sara she needn’t have worried… _Much_. There were no pumpkin incidents to speak of, although on Halloween’s Eve, when the CSI had decided that her bed needed a change of linens, she couldn’t find any of the spare one’s she knew they owned.

Also, the following morning, she realised that some of the clotheslines that hung outside were missing. Frowning rather aggressively at the prospect of having to hang the entire wash load that the six of them had gone through in the last week on the remaining three lines, Sara swivelled around and bellowed her wife’s name.

Sofia came running out of the bedroom in a tank top and shorts and looked frantically around for any signs of danger. Once she spotted her scowling wife standing on the backyard porch, she knew she was in trouble.

“Sofia.” The CSI said very calmly “What have you done with my clotheslines?”

Gulping at the approaching woman, the detective backed up into the hallway wall and tried to come up with something to say that didn’t involve telling the truth.

“What do you mean, Sara? The clotheslines are hanging right there…” she waved in the general direction of the garden glass doors.

The brunette stopped in front of her wife frown still firmly in place. “Sofia. _What_ did you do with the clotheslines? And why are there no spare bed sheets in the-”

The detective knew Sara had figured it out; the woman had studied in Harvard after all. In the few seconds the brunette took to show any kind of reaction, Sofia thought she’d be doing the house chores for an entire year.

“Sofia! You’re not going to try and use my linens and clotheslines to have ghosts floating around, are you?” Seeing the blonde’s guilty look was all the answer she needed “Sofia! We had to move last time you did that! Poor Mr. and Mrs. Quinn never recovered from the scare!”

Since the CSI wasn’t raging, the blonde recovered her natural confidence “They were creepy, always looking at me like they wanted to have a threesome. They deserved it, if you ask me! Besides Mrs. Jenkins is really evil, so I doubt my floating bed linen ghosts will do any serious damage to her health.”

“Sofia…” Sara started, but she couldn’t contain her mirth at her wife’s idea and broke out laughing.

******

Later that day, Sara did a last minute check on the contraption (because there was no other name for it) holding her former linens that extended from her backyard towards her neighbour’s house. The sheets were held at specific places around Mrs. Jenkins house and using the line they could be moved about. It was a rather complicated set up and Sofia and Alex had only managed to put it in place because their neighbour had been out of the house all day – Sara suspected Mr. Carter had something to do with it, although when most of their neighbours came out to help she figured they had all cooked up the plan together.

The main idea was for everyone to meet at Andrew’s house, since it faced Mrs. Jenkins home, and enjoy the show. A show that consisted of the floating ghosts, JJ dressed in his ‘glow-in-the-dark’ skeleton costume and a six-foot pumpkin man built and illuminated by her other children.

Sara wondered if they wouldn’t all get arrested.

“Mommy! Look!” James came bounding out onto the porch showing off his costume, followed by Alex trying to get her vampire teeth in place without smearing the makeup Sofia had spent the past hour applying.

Smiling at the little boy, the brunette picked him up “You look amazing, JJ. I’m sure you’ll scare Mrs. Jenkins away.”

Alex said something around her fake teeth that neither of them understood.

The detective joined them and inspected, with a critical eye, the tomboy’s pale complexion. JJ had gone back into the house and Sara raised an eyebrow at the other woman’s head-to-toe black ensemble.

“Perfect! Alex, you look positively pale as death!” The detective congratulated herself on a job well done.

“Thanks… I think…” Alex replied “You’re being cocky, Mom. I could have done this myself…”

“Of course. And exactly what experience on applying makeup would you be using, humm?” The detective smirked.

The girl just blew a raspberry and, with a swoosh of her cape, disappeared into the house.

“Aren’t you dressed for the occasion…” the brunette woman commented.

“Hey, I’m just trying to blend in with the scenery. I don’t want to give myself away, before we give Mrs. Jenkins more reason to hate us.” She sauntered closer and draped her arms around the CSI’s neck.

“I married an evil, evil woman…” Sara’s comment was lost in the kiss they shared, the darkness enveloping them.


	17. Halloween Chaos

‘It couldn’t possibly end well…’ had been Sara’s most recurring thought for the past hour. She still wasn’t convinced that the ghost contraption had been a good idea, despite Sofia’s assurances to the contrary.

The CSI stood in Andrew’s living room, which faced the street and Mrs. Jenkins’ house, squinting into the darkness outside, while her children pranced about on their front yard. She could barely see her wife, dressed in black as she was.

For the tenth time that evening she debated the pros and cons of this ‘operation’. The detective was convinced that nothing could go wrong and that the worse that could happen was the police showing up to a disturbance call; considering she was Homicide Captain, Sofia was certain no charges would ever be pressed. When she thought about it, the brunette couldn’t see any logic in the blonde’s last statement, and she wondered how it had flown over her head. Also, she remembered one of her college Physics professors emphasizing Newton’s Third Law every time he gave a lecture – every action had an equal and opposing reaction. Most importantly, her wife had tempted Fate, and also Murphy’s Law, by saying that nothing could go wrong.

******

Alexandra Sidle Curtis would, for the rest of her life, remember the day her blonde mother was outsmarted by one of their many neighbours.

The plan they had was good but, as her brunette mother would remind them during the years to come, they had ignored one major variable in the scheme of things: the unpredictability associated with human beings, especially Mrs. Jenkins.

They really should have known that after a few years of living next door to them, Mrs. Jenkins would take precautions against the ‘little devils’ on Halloween.

******

When Sofia spotted a cab turning onto their street, she sprang into action “Kids! Mrs. Jenkins is back!” She waved towards Mr. Carter’s house and then disappeared into the bushes on her neighbour’s front yard.

Sara alerted her other neighbours; Andrew turned the lights in his house off and they all huddled in front of the window, not wanting to miss one bit of the action.

The brunette still thought it couldn’t end well. The next few minutes would indeed prove that all of the CSI’s assumptions and worries were real…

******

Alex had hurried to the back of their house, for she was in charge of moving her mom’s ghost contraption around. Peeking over the wooden fence separating the houses, she saw their neighbour exit the cab and pay the fare. She also saw her little brother sneaking to the back of Mrs. Jenkins house. Once he was inside, she raised her hand towards her blonde mother, who gave a slight nod of acknowledgement.

Sofia smirked evilly; their plan was in motion. She watched as Mrs. Jenkins strode up to her front door, unlocked it and walked inside.

Jill and Tommy’s job was to knock on the door and do the usual ‘Trick or Treat’ routine, which would give Sofia time to light up the pumpkin man. The two children did knock on the door and, once it opened, smiled widely, asking for treats. Then, something extremely odd happened, that had the detective frowning: Mrs. Jenkins smiled, waved the kids in and went in search of some candy.

“What in the world…?” the blonde muttered, frowning.

Across the street, Sara raised an eyebrow “Did she just invite the kids in? Mrs. Jenkins??”

The two children obviously didn’t share their mothers’ astonishment and happily followed the old lady inside. And then everything started going wrong…

******

When Sofia didn’t hear or see anything from the house after almost five minutes had passed, she huffed and, trying to remain unseen, crawled across the lawn towards the house.

Sara’s other eyebrow joined its twin at her wife’s antics.

When she reached the porch, the detective poked her head over the windowsill and peered inside. Seeing nothing but darkness she started muttering again.

“What in the world is going on?! That woman had better not have done anything criminal…”

In the backyard of their own house, Alex didn’t know whether to giggle or roll her eyes at her mother’s muttering and circling of the other house. She watched as the detective picked the lock on the back door and sneaked in.

A few seconds later there was a crash and a yelp, followed by a shimmering glow, which caused some more yelping and screaming. Then Mrs. Jenkins front door burst open and Jill came running out, a cat on her head; Tommy chased after her trying to help, but he tripped down the steps and crashed into the blonde girl, sending the cat flying into a bush.

The animal’s wailing and hissing drew his companions’ attention and soon the two blonde children were being chased around by dozens of cats.

Across the street, Sara stared shell-shocked. She jumped when a very unladylike scream was heard coming from the back of Mrs. Jenkins house.

Alex wasn’t prepared to see and hear her blonde mother scream. When the blonde had come out of the neighbour’s house, closely followed by JJ and a rolling pin waving Mrs. Jenkins, the backyard had lit up; several ominous looking pumpkins were strewn about and had caused the aforementioned scream.

Sofia would later tell them that she hadn’t expected all the pumpkins and how it had scared the shit out of her when they all lit up in the darkness, but Alex didn’t really care; she had burst out laughing at her mom’s expression of fright and didn’t stop until much later.

For the following half hour, chaos reigned supreme; Sofia and JJ ran away from the rolling pin and pan-wielding Mrs. Jenkins. Tommy and Jill ran from the hissing cats, while the other neighbours tried helping. Sara stared out Mr. Carter’s door, mouth hanging wide open and Alex laughed until she cried.


	18. First Date

Sofia knew she was breaking the speed limit, but she _had_ to get home, or she was going to miss her daughter leaving for her first date – even though Alex claimed it was nothing of the sort. All week, the girl had been growling at her every time she commented on the matter, but the blonde knew better – her eldest daughter _was_ going on a date and so help her if the Undersheriff’s last-minute visit made her late.

Five minutes later, the squealing of tires and a police siren could be heard from the Sidle-Curtis household. Sara raised an eyebrow and looked up from the newspaper she had been reading. Less than a minute later the front door burst open and in came an out of breath, haggard looking detective. JJ poked his head around his brunette mother to see what all the commotion was about.

“Has she left yet?” the blonde asked, looking around the almost empty living room and ignoring the brunette’s amused grin.

“Sofia. Alex has told you a thousand times it’s not a date. They’re just going to the movies. They’ve done that several times before in the past.” Sara’s statement was completely ignored, as her wife proceeded down the hall. The CSI’s grin only widened when she heard a muttered ‘Not a date, my ass.’

Then a loud shout came from the bathroom followed by an even louder ‘MOM!!’. Sara rolled her eyes and went back to her newspaper.

****** 

Sofia had been going through Tommy’s history homework when the doorbell rang. JJ jumped from his spot on the couch next to his brunette mother and dashed to open the door. He smiled big and stretched his arms up when he saw Jennifer standing there. “Hi, Jen!”

The girl smiled back at the four-year-old and, picking him up, walked inside. “Hi, JJ.” She waved at Alex’s mothers “Hi Ms. Curtis, hi Ms. Sidle.”

“Jen, how are you?” Sara asked, setting the newspaper on the coffee table and stretching out her legs.

“Too much school work, but otherwise I’m good.” The girl answered as she set James Junior on the ground again.

“Alex keeps complaining about that as well.” Sofia added to the conversation “Speaking of her…” She turned towards the hall and shouted “Alex! Jen’s here!”

“It’s alright, actually. I’m a bit early.” Jennifer said, but then grinned when her friend sassed back from her room down the hall.

“If you hadn’t interrupted my shower, mom, I wouldn’t be late! It’s your fault!”

Before her wife could say something about dates and keeping women waiting (she just _knew_ Sofia was going to say something if her evil smirk was any indication), Sara inquired about the movie the teens were planning on watching.

“Oh, we haven’t really decided yet. It’s a toss up between action and comedy.” The girl replied as she sat down on the couch next to Jill, who was completely focused on The Simpsons on TV.

“You look very pretty, Jen.” JJ said, pulling on the girl’s jacket sleeve.

Sara blinked at her son’s comment and then groaned inwardly when she noticed her wife’s smirk.

The girl in question blushed an interesting shade of pink and patted the boy on the head “Thank you, JJ.” He just gave another big grin and returned to his brunette mother’s side on the couch.

Of course, Sofia couldn’t let the opportunity pass up and threw in her two cents: “JJ is right, Jen, you look good. Planning on turning many heads at the mall, humm? Or maybe just one specific head?”

The CSI grabbed her newspaper and swatted her blonde wife on the head with it, while Jennifer’s blush only intensified.

******

When 15 minutes had passed without Alex coming out of her room, Sofia left the living room and knocked on her daughter’s bedroom door. “Alex? You in there? You don’t want to keep Jen waiting, especially on your first da-” She was interrupted rather abruptly, when the door opened, and she was pulled inside.

“Mom!” the tomboy hissed and then punched the blonde on the shoulder when she saw the cheeky smile on her mother’s face. The brunette rolled her eyes and went back to her closet mirror to finish with her hair and grab her jacket.

When the detective didn’t say anything else, Alex turned to find her still by the door, staring at her oddly. “What?” she asked defensively.

Sofia was a bit stunned, as she took in her daughter dressed in black jeans, white button-down shirt and navy-blue sleeveless sweater. “You look…” she paused, searching for the right word “… handsome, Alex.”

The tomboy coloured slightly and turned back to the mirror to look at her reflection. Straightening out her cuffs, she looked up when her blonde mother stepped up behind her and set her hands on her shoulders.

“You do look really handsome.” The detective said, smiling gently. When the tomboy looked down at her shoes, Sofia didn’t miss the uncertain look that had crossed her features. “Hey.” She turned the girl around and put a hand under her chin, encouraging her to meet her gaze. “What’s the matter?”

“I… Do you think that…” Alex started in an uncertain voice and then gave up when she couldn’t put her feelings into words.

“You really are your mother’s daughter, huh?” Sofia asked, amusement in her voice. The tomboy looked up at that. “Before our first date, your mother was so nervous, she changed outfits half a dozen times and then she forgot her keys at home. I had to pick her lock when we got back.” The girl let out a chuckle and Sofia grinned. “But if you ask her, she’ll tell you she didn’t have any reason to be worried because she realised that I was as nervous as she was. Just be yourself and you’ll be fine. Heaven knows you’ve got your mother’s smile and _that_ is what got me right from the beginning.”

Alex smiled her gap-toothed smile and hugged her blonde mother “Thanks, mom.”

Sensing that the girl would be okay, Sofia went back to her playful and cocky self. “So, this outing _is_ a date. As I’ve been saying right from the start.”

All the living room occupants turned to look down the hall, when they heard Alex yell ‘MOM!! Would you stop it??!!’ and Sofia ducking out of the room grinning wickedly.

Muttering and glaring at the blonde woman, the tomboy slammed the door to her room shut and stomped into the living room, only to stop dead in her tracks when her gaze landed on Jen. Her friend had left her hair loose and was wearing a top under her jacket that showed more skin and curves than Alex was used too. The girls promptly blushed and glanced away from each other.

Trying not to giggle at the scene, Sofia glanced over to Sara, who was still staring at their eldest daughter. “Alright!” she said loudly, breaking the silence and snapping everyone out of their dazes “Now that Alex is ready, you girls go and enjoy yourselves. Call when you’re done, and I’ll come pick you up.”

Clearing her throat, Alex moved further into the living room. “Hey, Jen.” She smiled then and Jennifer couldn’t help but reply in kind, despite the butterflies in her stomach. She got up and after only a moment’s hesitation, the girls left the house waving their goodbyes.

The silence that descended was broken by James Junior asking very innocently: “Are they going to kiss?”, which made Sara groan and Sofia laugh.


	19. It couldn’t get worse…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final instalment I wrote for this small series, and it is more focused on Sara and Sofia and how their relationship began.
> 
> As I mentioned in the first chapter, these fics were written many years ago, and I don't plan on adding to the series. I just wanted to post them here all together, for whoever would like to read them.

_Eighteen years earlier…_

Sara thought the day could not get any worse and it wasn’t even 8 in the morning yet. There had been a flat tire on the way to work the evening before, so she was very late when she arrived at the lab. Consequently, she got to process every criminologist’s nightmare of a scene, when her supervisor had told her she was to work on her own in a suspicious circumstances case – process a hotel room that had been turned upside down and with its occupants missing.

Then, upon arriving at the scene, she realised that Detective Morrison, who chewed too much gum and talked too much about his private life, was working the case. After several hours of lifting fingerprints and fibres, swabbing dubious organic and inorganic stains, bagging bed sheets and champagne glasses, Sara Sidle was pissed. Luckily, Morrison had left about an hour after she had arrived, so she was spared the details of the man’s latest impromptu romp in the PD’s bathroom (‘That didn’t really happen, did it?’ she had thought to herself).

In the end, to add insult to injury, she’d had another flat tire on her way back (which resulted in some stomping and tire kicking when no one was looking.).

So, Sara thought it couldn’t get much worse…

“Sara, I need to see you in my office. As soon as you can.” Grissom said as he passed by the layout room she was currently ensconced in, working away at photographing and swabbing the ridiculous amount of organic stains on the bed sheets spread on the table.

The brunette frowned; Murphy and his damned law…

****** 

Sofia was having a relatively good night; she was mostly up-to-date on her paperwork and her latest perp just so happened to think himself smart enough to offer his help to the police, only to be caught 5 minutes later because he had forgotten to hide the knife he’d used to stab his neighbour.

She was also happy that Sara was finally talking to her again, after the kiss they’d shared two months before had sent the other woman running for the hills and beyond. It was quite the improvement after the icy treatment she’d had to withstand for an entire month. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so blunt about it; clearly Sara needed some time to feel comfortable with this sort of thing and even more time to do anything about it.

With thoughts of the brunette woman to keep her company, Sofia left the PD intent on finding Nick and getting the DNA results from the knife.

******

“It has come to my attention that you’ve gone overboard with your overtime. Again.” Grissom started, as soon as Sara had sat down in front of his desk.

The woman lifted an eyebrow and frowned “ ‘It has come to your attention’? Now I know something unpleasant is about to happen… Nobody says that unless they’re either about to fire an employee or suspending them.”

Her supervisor took his glasses off and set them on the desk “Well, you’re not being fired. Or suspended. You’re taking a two-week vacation though-”

“Two weeks?? But…”

The man raised a hand before she went on a tirade “Two weeks. No ifs, no buts. Starting at the end of this shift.”

Sara pouted like a scolded child and then left in a huff.

******

Sofia had been in the DNA lab talking to Wendy and Nick, when the brunette stormed past it, muttering about Grissom, overtime and forced vacations.

“Hey, Sara!” Wendy called out, waving a file in the air. “I got some of those DNA results of yours back.”

The CSI didn’t even bother with a reply, yanking the file from the tech’s grasp and reading through it. Her frown only intensified. “That’s brilliant. Everyone and their brother has been in that hotel room…”

“It can’t be that bad…” Sofia offered sympathetically, only to wince when Sara glared at her and left without any further comments.

“Someone’s in a pissy mood…” Nick said.

They all jumped when Sara’s voice floated into the lab before she turned around the corner: “I heard that!”

The Texan grinned and left as well, leaving the two women to ponder the brunette’s behaviour.

“Personally, I think she needs to get married and have a bunch of kids. She needs a different kind of stress in her life.” Wendy offered. Sofia blinked stupidly.

“What does that have to do with anything?” the detective inquired.

The DNA tech rolled her eyes “Of for the love of God, just ask her out, marry her and have kids. Then she’ll be happy, won’t work overtime and, therefore, won’t be pissy either.” She said as if it was the most obvious thing to do “I’m taking a break.” She added and left as well.

Sofia stood rooted to the floor. She couldn’t have been that obvious about her feelings… Then she remembered what Sara had been muttering about: two weeks of vacation due to overtime. The detective grinned wickedly; her night had been going pretty well so far, so why not give it a try…

******

When Sofia stepped into the layout room, cheeky grin and all, Sara had had enough of being the butt of the ongoing cosmic joke.

“No. No. Whatever it is, it’ll only make my day worse and I’m already way past the point of ‘if something can go wrong it will go wrong’.” She stated using air quotes for emphasis. “Murphy and his law be damned.”

“Well, I was thinking that-” Sofia started, only to be rudely interrupted.

“No! Absolutely not! Turn around and get your cute butt out of here. I want to finish my shift, go home and pretend the last twelve hours of disaster after disaster did not happen.” Sara pointed a swab at the blonde woman and made shooing motions with her other hand.

‘Well, then…’ Sofia thought, when the CSI went back to her work ignoring her completely ‘She is clearly not herself today – pointing swabs and _shooing_ me out of- Wait a minute…’

“Cute butt?”

The detective hadn’t meant to say that out loud and when the brunette stiffened, Sofia grimaced. This could not end well…

Sara decided that the day was clearly not her day. Or night. Two flat tires, processing a hotel room, being forced into a vacation and now her inner filter was malfunctioning. She scowled and glared at the bed sheet lying in front of her. If the Cosmos wanted to laugh at her, it was going to do so on _her_ terms.

“Oh to hell with it!” The outburst made Sofia jump slightly. Then her jaw nearly hit the floor, when Sara hastily put the evidence away and shoved the box onto a shelf. The CSI was known for being nothing but careful with case evidence and what she was doing was very out of character.

“Sara? What are y-” The blonde was again interrupted when she was grabbed by an arm, pushed against the table in the middle of the room and kissed roughly.

To say that Sofia was shocked was an understatement. She stood there, stock still, while Sara kissed her. But then her brain caught up with the present: Sara was, voluntarily, _kissing her_.

When the connection was made, her entire being lit on fire. A volcano erupted inside of her and she melted. Melted into Sara. Melted into the kiss.

For her part, Sara had been rather surprised by her boldness. She’d also been rather unprepared for the flare of desire and emotion that coursed through her the moment she’d touched the other woman’s lips. It _scared_ her.

But when Sofia gave in and their kiss went from rough to slow and sweet in a heartbeat, it also felt like coming home.

******

They agreed on a dinner date for that evening, but Murphy still wanted to get one last laugh out of Sara before leaving to ruin someone else’s life. As soon as the brunette had stepped into her apartment building, whistling and grinning like an idiot, she realised the elevator was out of service ‘until further notice’ – which usually meant ‘not anytime soon’ in this particular building. So, she had to walk up the stairs to her floor, the _tenth_ floor.

Everything that followed after that was mainly due to panic settling in at the prospect of a date with Sofia Curtis.

******

“I’m gonna be late!” Sara hissed as she emerged from the bathroom, hair still dripping, and started looking through her wardrobe. “What to wear? What to wear?” She muttered to herself, scanning her possible choices with a critical eye and tapping a foot.

When there was a knock on her door fifteen minutes later, the brunette had already changed in and out of five different outfits and was midway through her sixth.

“Did I come at a bad time?” Sofia inquired when a half-dressed Sara opened the door.

The brunette looked down at herself and realised she was in her bra and jeans and had only one of her socks on. She blushed and disappeared back into her bedroom to finish dressing, leaving Sofia at the door.

The detective gulped. Seeing Sara in a bra had been… well, hot, if she said so herself, but it certainly hadn’t helped her nerves. She was so afraid of doing something wrong that would send the brunette running for the hills again, that she’d barely gotten any sleep.

The CSI came back to the living room, this time fully dressed, and found the blonde looking worriedly around.

“Sofia? You okay?”

The woman jumped at the sound of her name and swivelled around, eyes wide. “Ah, Sara. Don’t scare me like that.”

The CSI couldn’t help but grin. Knowing Sofia was nervous, helped ease her own frayed nerves somewhat.

The detective let out a breath and decided she was gonna enjoy this night, no matter what happened. Sara was worth the risk. And as long as she made Sara smile, even if it was at her own expense, Sofia figured not much could go wrong.

“I’m ready. Let’s go. Where are you taking me, by the way?” The brunette asked as she held the door for Sofia to pass and then closed it behind them.

“Now, that would be ruining the surprise wouldn’t it?”

******

 

_Present_

“Well, I think that aside from you forgetting your keys and me picking your lock, the date went pretty well…”

Sara rose up on an elbow and glared down at the blonde. “Why do you always have to focus on that? I’d like to think that out of everything that happened that day, it’d be the image of me in my underwear that you would remember most vividly…”

Sofia grinned up at her wife. “I don’t need to remember that. I get to see it everyday. Much better than a memory…”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Curtis.” The brunette mocked, but the tiny smile on her lips gave away her true feelings.

Flipping them off the couch and onto the fluffy carpet, the detective replied: “Oh, I don’t know. I find it gets me to a lot of places, one of them being your bed.”

Sara just snorted and pulled her down for a kiss.

****** 

In a mall across town, leaning against the railing, Alex dialled her mother’s number and waited. Next to her, Jen had slipped an arm through hers and looked down at the people coming and going, a content smile on her face.

******

When a phone started ringing, Sofia groaned and reached blindly for it. Sara saw it as an opportunity and flipped them over, so she could have unrestrained access to her partner’s neck.

“Hello?” Sofia croaked into the phone and then had to bite her lip to keep a moan from escaping. The brunette had found her pulse point and was doing things with her hands that always succeeded in driving her crazy.

“Mom? You okay? You sound funny.” Alex asked from the other end of the line.

Sofia’s eyes widened comically as she realised it was her daughter who’d called.

“ _Sara_.” She hissed, covering the phone with her hand “We need to stop. Alex is- oh God!”

Alex could have sworn she’d heard her mother _moan_. She pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it strangely.

“What?” Jennifer asked. The brunette just shrugged and put the phone back to her ear. Her mothers _wouldn’t_ be making out, or doing… other… _things_ , while on the phone with her.

“Mom?” she asked again.

The sound that came over the line had Alex turning pale white and then blushing so hard, the air temperature around her seemed to rise a few degrees. Jen looked over worriedly.

As loud as she dared in the crowded mall, she yelled into the phone: “MOM!! You’re NOT making out while on the phone with me!!”

 


End file.
